Shards of Darkness
by Silverspegel
Summary: Sora, Riku and Kairi are separated and must fight with new allies on new worlds as darkness once more threatens to swallow the worlds of light, this time through collecting and reforging an ancient artefact created to bring chaos...
1. Prologue Part 1

_**Shards of Darkness**_

**PART 1 – Parting and meeting**

"_Don't be afraid… Remember; you hold the mightiest weapon of all…" _(Kingdom Hearts)

**Prologue**

"_This eternal world is all: what was, what is and what shall be and what beyond is in eternity." _(mantra from the opening verse of the Upanishads)

Once upon a time…

This story is old enough to be told in the fashion of a fairy tale, but it's in no way a story for children and every bit of it is true, and therefore it should rather be seen as a piece of history, forgotten and made legend.

Long ago, the worlds that today are separated were parts of one big unity, one complete world. But as a large group of inhabitants of this world learned how to use their inner sources of power to form magic, they also learned of the source of all life, a gathering of soul energy that they came to call the Kingdom Hearts.

They also learned that the immense power behind it was dependent on a balance between two different prospects of the power: light and dark. However, as the people learned more of the balance, they also learned what could be done with each side of it. The balance was then disrupted, creating a crack between light and dark, when someone created a weapon from his power, using only the darkness in his heart. Others realized the threat this person was, once he started to use his weapon to create chaos and cause death, and they managed to copy his creation, but using the light part of their powers instead. Thus the keyblades were born.

For ages the war between those of light keys and those of dark grew until it all ended in one final battle of large proportion. As the greatest concentrations of powers both light and dark clashed on one spot, the crack created in the wall between the world of light and the world of darkness, was blown open. No matter how hard the keyblade warriors of the light side fought to prevent it, the world was finally swallowed by the darkness that poured out of the wound created.

But the old world remained in the hearts of children, and their memories became the light from which the world slowly was recreated. But being memories, they were mere glimpses of what had once been and so the former unity was shattered and the different worlds were created, separated from each other and without any memory of once having been a unified whole.

For eons of time the worlds developed their own distinct natures, as the balance between light and darkness slowly was repaired. The power of Kingdom Hearts had changed with the world, and so had the weapons. They were no longer the conscious creations of the wielders, but creations of the heart of the worlds, picking out the wielders in an endless chain of destiny so that the balance between light and darkness would be kept. Along the road the keyblade warriors were once again building in strength as the need for guardians of the balance grew. The keyblade masters that were wise enough to see the developed differences of the new worlds, realized that the former grand world they once were part of, could not be re-forged from these parts, seeing as how they'd changed from their former shapes. It would be like trying to complete a puzzle with pieces from several other puzzles that doesn't fit; not in shape, nor in motif. So they taught their students to keep the balance and guard the worlds from ever knowing of the former unity they belonged to.

The darkness however was not that easy to control and it found its way into the hearts of key wielders as well as ordinary people. Darkness in itself isn't evil, mind this, but it strives for a domination of things that come in its way and does so in a more fierce fashion than the light. As a key wielder learned about the old world and how it got destroyed by the darkness, he sought a way to re-create what was lost, despite his master's recommendations and warnings. The thought of the possibility to get rid of the need for balance-keepers, such as the keyblade wielders, was too tempting to his heart. His own desire to get free of the obligations that came with the keyblade, made the darkness grow inside of him, until he could no longer see the wrong in his ideas and actions.

He learned that every heart contains light and darkness alike and that the keyblade was connected to the strength inside a heart. He also learned that in order for the world to be reborn as it once was, it had to be disassembled once more. To do this, he had to open the Kingdom Hearts and release the power it held. For this to be possible he had to create a key that would open up the door and this would only be possible if he found a way to make pure light meet with pure darkness inside of one single heart.

Seeing that every heart had both darkness and light, the keyblade wielder now sought a way to extract and purify these two parts of a heart. He started experimenting on people he met that seemed to be balanced enough to have as good as equal parts of the two powers. As he tried to find a way to split the heart, he came across a magic that originated from the deep shadows that lurked in the darkness in which he now dwelled. Using the shadows as a base material, he managed to create a crystal that had the power to absorb the darkness of a heart, working as a magnet for the matter that it was created of. He knew now that he had the tool needed to split a heart and rejoiced in his success.

But the darkness has its own ways of getting things done and so it came to be that the first person to face the power of the crystal, was his best friend. The friend he'd never intended to hurt, struggled against the powers of the crystal, but as the sliver of darkness that was inside of him left his heart, so did the remaining light and his body disappeared along with his heart.

Devastated and broken, the keyblade wielder that in his ignorance had manufactured the crystal, finally saw the wrongs in what he had been trying to do and with his powers he managed to shatter the crystal, rendering it useless. But he wasn't able to completely destroy it, for the material it was shaped from had grown too strong. In order for no one to ever reassemble the crystal again, he used his last powers to seal the shards of the crystal into the worlds that he had visited in his research, giving back a piece of what he had taken away from them and thus rebalancing the powers of those worlds.

All was well for a while, until once again the balance was disrupted and the call for the keyblades once again was heard. A battle started between students and masters, almost completely wiping out the balance keepers along with the knowledge of the keyblades. Until a young boy listened to the cries of the worlds and answered their call as his own world was threatened. The keyblades were once more taken into use, but this time, the strongest blade was held by someone who had to discover all of its powers on his own, with no one to guide him. Through a time of war against the darkness, he grew to become a powerful warrior and protector of the light, until the day that he finally could return home.

But his story was far from over.

In fact, it had only just begun.

And in the far parts of the universe, the darkness once more gathered around a man that listened to its call. A man set on recreating the world of old. With nothing and no one stopping him from following this dream, he came to know about the crystal and the shards needed to shape it…


	2. 1 Signs of change

**Chapter 1: Signs of change**

"_No matter how deep I see, how far I see; My eyes cannot find support. All that I know is there no more - Not big, not small – not life, not death. One step upon a traceless path, and the return is for me closed…"_ (Karin Boye, _Buddhist fantasy_, _roughly translated from Swedish_).

_The darkness was shifting._

_For so long it had had a never ending reign over the reality that he knew of, the reality he was aware of and could remember. _

_Now, something was… _

_Different._

_It was still all darkness and yet he knew something had changed, all though he could not point it out._

_Slowly, ever so slowly, he began to search for an answer_.

"For how long have we been walking now?"

The question came softly, almost a whisper, but was heard clearly in the silence surrounding them on the shore of a gently moving sea that carried no sound of its own. The vast landscape of eternal twilight surrounding them offered no interruption to the sound of her voice, but fortified every whisper into clearly spoken words.

The other turned his attention towards her.

"For days, weeks, ages and only a few minutes," he answered with a tired voice. "No time and all time is at work in this place simultaneously, making it possible to move, breathe and speak, but impossible to in any way recall what amount of time passes when you choose to do any of those things."

His companion sighed, sorrow in her heart at the thought that this fact might make her still lingering though roughly battered dreams yet more impossible to realize.

"Have faith, my friend," the other said and put a comforting leather clad hand upon her cold shoulder. "If you lose that wonderful light of yours, this world will devour you."

She smiled, an image – if ever so weakened and shivering – of what she had once been, in another time, another place, long before she ever knew of the existence of a world such as the one they now were trapped in.

"I appreciate your help, dear friend," she said softly and put a hand against her chest, closing her eyes as if searching for something within herself. "But there's still enough light within me to fight off the darkness. I'm not giving in that easily."

The other hummed his liking.

"I thought as much. After all, it seems you've saved me with your presence".

"Just as you're saving me with yours," she replied and opened her eyes again, sparkling cobalt lighting up the dull grays of their surroundings.

They walked on in silence for a period of seconds and eons and observed the world around them.

Suddenly the never changing display of black water, ashen gray sands and carbon black cliffs was disrupted in a ripple of black tearing the misty sky in two. A sound of ground shaking thunder ripped through the silence with a terrifying volume that made the two wanderers shiver.

Shaken and alerted, they stopped in their steps and watched the tear in the sky above them as it disappeared, just as suddenly as it had appeared. Within the time of a short breath, the place they were in was back to the way it was, as if nothing had ever happened.

But it had happened none the less, this they both knew with a hope-bringing certainty as they looked at each other.

"Did you feel that?" she asked, her eyes suddenly filled with a new light reflected in her voice.

"Yes," he replied, his deep voice containing a reawakened hope. "It's beginning."

They both directed their eyes towards the false sun of grey light that hovered at a distance unknown in its constant position over the water.

"Let's hope and pray this change will turn out for the better," he added, the shimmer in his golden eyes telling just what he was feeling, as he in his memory directed all his prays and hopes towards the one person he knew of to still be in the position of defending the light against the oncoming darkness that he was sensing, hoping for him to prevail once more.

_The shadows were everywhere. _

_Darkness covered his entire world, save for the myriads upon myriads of glowing yellow orbs that were constantly pouring in over the scenery. He was fighting them back, fighting with all his heart and body, but seemingly to no use._

_Their numbers never ceased; if he cut one down, three more took its place. He was so tired, his body aching and screaming for rest, but he knew that should he stop, they would consume both him and the light that he was defending._

_For a brief second he slipped and lost his footing. The effect was instant and the glowing orb of purest white light that he had been protecting was gone._

_The shadows stormed closer, but as he raised his weapon to continue the fight, it flickered out of existence, taking with it the last shred of hope that he had of surviving._

_As the darkness covered him, making his body freeze at the touch of the black claws and his heart to race in fear and panic, he fought for his life to break free. He reached out a hand towards the sky, but there was no one there to take his hand and pull him free, no light in the darkness._

_A searing pain in his chest rushed through him, taking over all other sensations that previous wounds had been giving him up to now and told him what was happening, though he didn't want to look._

_Darkness, freezing cold to the point of burning, drilled into him as he felt sharp claws grasp his heart._

Sora woke up with a start, screaming with all his might, clasping his chest in panic and almost fell out of the bed as he sat up and watched his surroundings in disbelief, the shadows of his desk and chair not making any sense to his still rushing mind. Where was his weapon? Where were his friends? Donald? Goofy? Riku? Kairi?

"Sora? What's wrong? Are you alright?" his mother's slightly muffled voice was heard calling from the other side of the bedroom door. The panic tainted worry was obvious in the way the voice wavered as she spoke.

Sora blinked as his racing mind suddenly came to a whiplash halt and he finally remembered where he was. He winced with a feeling of guilt at the emotions heard in his mother's voice.

He had, as far as his mother knew, been gone from the world for about two years. During the first six months she had been worried out of her wits for him, despite Kairi's constant tries to ensure her he was coming back soon. The following year she, just like everybody else connected to his heart, had forgotten about him completely, causing her to feel all the more terrible as she suddenly started remembering him again and still had to wait another six months before he actually did return.

The fact that he'd actually been away yet another year before those two, when their world had been engulfed by the darkness, was something she didn't know and Sora wasn't going to tell her either. No matter how odd it all felt when his birthday was celebrated one year off and that he had to blame his rapid growth on teen hormones, even though it was due to him actually being one year ahead of everybody else who's time had stopped during that year.

Sora forced the cool night air into his lungs and tried hard to keep his voice clear of his inner turmoil as he answered her, his throat sore from the screaming and one hand still pressed white knuckled against his bare chest as the memory of the pain slowly faded.

"I'm ok mom, don't worry. I just had another nightmare. Go back to bed," he said, surprising himself with how soft and calm his voice sounded.

He listened as the sound of his mother's footsteps slowly ascended down the stairs and exhaled in a deep and weary sigh. She had probably been standing outside his door for some time before he'd screamed himself awake, having heard his troubled twisting and turning in bed, but not sure whether or not to wake him up, not wanting to deprave him of what sleep he could get.

The nightmares had been there from the start, ever since his first night back home. Each night he had been reliving the battles and the horrors of his past years living on the move and never knowing what waited for him on the path ahead. To always be on your watch, afraid to fall asleep, lest the enemy should come while you were not on your guard and to see your friends get hurt for a mistake that you made in the midst of battle; that was something you didn't forget. Just as much as you forgot the feeling of hopelessness and despair as you sought to find friends you'd lost and feared never to see again, or the constantly growing desire to see the home you had lost. Or the conflicting feelings of betrayal and utter fear as you were forced to fight your best friend in order for him not to kill you.

At first the dreams had been varying in nature, some letting him sleep through the night, but waking him up in a flood of tears at the pain of remembering everything or everyone lost to him. Others horrifying and ending in much the same way as the one he'd experienced this night.

He'd been back on Destiny Islands for two whole years now and reasonably the dreams should have ceased or at least they shouldn't come as often as they did in the beginning, but instead they'd gotten worse. For the last two months he'd been getting no more than two or three hours of sleep each night, leaving him worn out and hollow eyed during the day.

This of course affected how he did in school. His grades had been rapidly crashing down, making both his mother and his teachers worried. And as if the grades weren't enough of a problem to solve, his social life had taken a serious dive as well.

Sora wrinkled his nose at the thought of how his entire life had been turned upside down due to the change his travels and battles had brought to his personality and appearance. He turned to look out the window, seeing the distant shape of the island bathing in the full moon light, a spot of light in the midst of a dark, but welcomingly calm sea.

At first he'd been greeted with joy by friends who'd been worried for him and missing him during his absence. Then they'd gradually noticed his change of personality and just as gradually, they'd been starting to avoid him. His circle of friends had gone from containing the entire population of the school, to being limited into Kairi, Riku, Wakka, Tidus and Selphie. All though, only Kairi and Riku actually ever sought him out, while the others simply remained by his side if they showed up on the island during the same day.

The biggest blow to his status of being someone you wanted to hang out with came about two months after he'd gotten back home. It was in the locker room after a gym class that he'd taken off his sweaty t-shirt and one of the other guys had spotted the one scar that had not been healed by the curing spells. Part worried and part fascinated, the classmate had asked about how he'd gotten it and Sora had stood dumbfounded for a moment before he realized that he couldn't tell him anything of it, unless he'd break the rules set for a wielder of the keyblade, concerning never to reveal the existence of other worlds unless the situation craves it in order to save lives. So, instead of making up a terribly bad lie, he'd decided to not answer at all, just shrug and enter the showers. From that day on, he was known as a loner and self centered, depressed slacker.

He slowly eased the pressure with which he'd kept his hand on his chest and instead traced the glossy scar tissue that stretched out in a bursting star-shaped pattern right over his heart.

The release of his heart to save Kairi had left a mark on him that proved not to be removable, the magic of the heart-stealing keyblade having been far too strong and tainted with darkness to be overcome by anything that he tried with the aid of Donald's and his own magic.

It still stung from time to time, reminding him of the feeling of being suddenly robbed of something that shouldn't be possible to steal, followed by the cold awareness of having ceased to be the person he'd been up until that moment. The cold, chilling agony of suddenly being completely alone and yet longing desperately to get back the warmth of a heart lost that still lingered in his memory. To see the faces of his friends and not recognize them, only desiring to take their warmth for his own pleasure, and then a hesitation as the most brilliantly shining one came close to him, awakening something he couldn't explain. He had wanted it so bad, it made his entire being want to scream if he couldn't stay close to it. And the voice bringing him back, the voice joined by a power of light greater than anything his memory could tell him of. Kairi.

Sora smiled as he thought of her.

Kairi had waited for him, not only hoping, but _knowing_ that he'd come back as he'd promised. And in the end, the thought of her had been what had brought him back from the darkness a second time.

She had been his light in the darkness and still was, just like she'd been ever since the first day that he'd seen her lying on the beach of the island when he was just a kid.

He sighed and laid himself back down on the bed, untangling the sheets somewhat, so that his legs were free of their grip and tried to empty his mind enough to go back to sleep, still hoping to overcome the inability to fall back asleep after waking up. He stared up at the ceiling and started counting his breaths in order to have something to do that also served to calm his still slightly racing heart.

As dawn was breaking outside his window, four hours later, he had still not gone back to sleep.

"And here I was hoping for some kind of change," he mumbled to himself as he watched the sun rise and paint the sky in a warm golden glow, just before the dark of the night gave way to the blue skies of day.


	3. 2 The calm before the storm

**Chapter 2: The calm before the storm**

"_You live long enough to hear the sound of guns, long enough to find yourself screaming every night,_

_long enough to see your friends betray you…"_ (Nightwish, _The pacific_)

"So, are you going to come with me to the city this weekend or not?"

Kairi made a slight frown as she thought over her options while Sarah focused on getting the right books out of her locker and into her bag before they could head home, her blonde shoulder length hair almost disappearing completely into the locker as she tried to reach for a notebook that had somehow got stuck against something sticky on the back wall.

"I don't know, Sarah, I honestly don't feel like spending an entire weekend on window shopping and café-hopping," Kairi finally answered as her classmate smacked her locker door shut and turned to look at her.

"Whoever said _window_ shopping? I'm talking about the big sales weekend here – I'm going for complete shopping frenzy!" Sarah replied and flung out her hands in a wild gesture of how much she was going to carry out of the stores.

"Yeah, well, I'm sort of saving up my money for a trip this summer, so I'm not buying anything not desperately needed," Kairi said slowly as she walked beside her friend through the doors of the main building at Destiny Islands High.

"Seriously, Kairi, you're no fun lately. All you do is hang around at the island all day or study. Don't you ever go out to have fun?"

Kairi was about to answer her, when she spotted a light brown mass of spiky hair that she recognized, sticking out of the crowd by being placed upon the head belonging to someone about one head taller than the rest of the students. The collar of his white school uniform shirt was un-folded and stood straight up at the back of his neck, revealing the presence of a loosely knotted sky- and navy blue checkered tie around his neck. He never did care much for the uniform standards.

"Sora!" she called out with a smile and waved at him as he turned around to look at her. Sora raised a hand as well in a slow wave and his blue eyes rested on her as he let her know with a nod towards the bike stands that he'd wait for her over there.

Kairi nodded her understanding, careful not to let her smile falter as she noticed just how tired he seemed to be. She was worried for him. If his nightmares didn't leave him alone soon, he would have to get some help to sleep.

"Aherm, the world of the living calls out to Kairi, do you reply?"

Kairi turned her attention back to Sarah.

"What?" she asked as she tried to gather her mind around what they had been talking about before the interruption.

"Seriously, Kairi! I can't understand what it is that you see in that guy! He's so not worthy of your attention. And what's with that sick look he's got? Is he seriously ill or something?"

Kairi felt like slapping her in the face at the remark, but an angry expression had to suffice. She had already lost too many of her friends due to her defending Sora and the way he was.

"He's _not_ sick, just tired. And by the way, yes, I spend a lot of time with him, just like you spend a great deal of your time with Seto, but you don't hear me calling him names because of it."

"Ouch, sorry if I stepped on a sore foot, Kairi, but I'm only thinking of what's best for you", Sarah bit back and looked at her with reprimanding green eyes. "That guy's been totally weird ever since he got back from that trip, or whatever it was. I'm telling you that you should be careful, 'cause you never know what he might be up to. I've heard really strange stories about him, like, there's this huge scar on his chest…"

"Enough!" Kairi almost yelled at her, the note of the scar setting something on fire inside of her.

Screw tact, and screw trying to keep a friend that had no sense of tact herself.

"You don't know him at all and seriously, you shouldn't believe anything that those other guys in his class are making up about him! He's been through a great deal of difficult things that none of you even know the half of and if you can't accept that it has changed him somewhat, then… then _**screw you**_!" and with that she turned on her heel and stomped off towards where she knew she'd find Sora waiting for her, leaving a very much surprised and shocked former friend behind her.

When he saw Kairi come towards him looking more or less like a red-haired personification of a thunder storm, Sora knew something had happened and he had a distinct feeling that it had to do with him. Again.

He greeted her with open arms, giving her anger stiffened body a friendly hug before they started walking.

"So, you wanna' talk about it?" he said after a while and dared a smile in her direction.

She looked up at him with a sad smile in response and Sora felt like hitting himself for being right.

"It's nothing, really," Kairi said with a forced cheerfulness in her voice. "It's just Sarah being more stupid than usual."

Sora sighed and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him as they walked.

"So, what was it this time? I'm a drug junkie, a suicidal wreck, a social disaster and a total air-headed freak? Close?"

Kairi stared at him in shock but didn't pull away. Instead she leaned in closer, taking hold of his waist to balance herself.

"Hm, I think she insinuated something like it…" was all she said and Sora clenched his teeth in order not to say something stupid.

This was the fourth time someone had tried to get Kairi away from him, not counting the number of times that her adoptive parents had tried the same thing when they thought he didn't hear them.

"Kairi, I'm…"

"Oh, no you don't!" Kairi interrupted him and firmed her hold on his waist. "You should not say you're sorry, 'cause it's not your fault, it's theirs and theirs alone! You shouldn't apologize for things you have no guilt in."

"But they're treating you the way they do because of me! How can I _not_ feel guilty about that, huh?" Sora objected, his eyes glowing with the kept in rage.

Kairi stopped him and looked up into his sad and angry blue eyes, feeling in her heart that she loved him and always would do so, no matter what others might say. Those sapphire depths, showing the inner most feelings of his heart, told her that the feeling was mutual and she smiled, a true and warm smile from her heart.

"You could always start by believing me when I say that you're innocent in the matter," she said and reached up, standing on her toes and slinging her arms around his neck as she softly placed her lips on his in a tender kiss.

Sora's face slowly brightened and his lips curved upwards in a smile rarely seen.

"And what happens if I don't?"

"I'll have to convince you, I guess," Kairi purred against his throat and hugged him tight. "I love you, Sora. Nothing will ever change that."

Sora held her as close to him as he could, savoring the feeling of her warmth in his arms and wishing to never let her go. She was his light in a world of too much shadow, an anchoring to keep him on the right track in life and one of the few friends he had left in this world.

"I love you too. Always have," he replied in a soft whisper, leaning in to let his face lie against the dark red hair, inhaling the smell of sea water that he had always connected with her.

"I know," she said, pressing her ear to his chest and closing her eyes to hear the beating of his heart. "I can hear it from here."

They stood like that, in a tight embrace, savoring the calm and safe feeling of the moment as people passed them on the street, some smiling knowingly, others muttering for them to get out of the way.

They didn't care to listen to anything else but the beating of their hearts, knowing they would have to part before the night and not wanting it to happen sooner than needed.

"Do we have an understanding?"

It was dark around them. Colossal stone pillars reached up towards a ceiling unseen in the dim lighting of burning torches. The flickering flames painted the gloom scenery with moving shadows, reminding of the creatures lingering in nightmares, reaching out their distorted limbs towards anyone who dared step out onto the stone paved floor. But none of the two seemed to notice the state of their surroundings.

"You say you want my help, to 'collect' these parts…" the other mused in a dark and hollow voice, a sound fitting for the creatures gathering in the shadows around them.

"Yes," the first one replied with ice cold calm. "In return, you get the power to control an endless army of creatures that cannot die by the hand of any ordinary soldier and a way to conquer and dominate a range of worlds, all to your own pleasure."

The other made a sound that reminded of a chuckle, but twisted and wrought out of shape by the darkness that filled his person.

"You are bold to speak in such a way to me, a being of dark magic and power beyond your imagination," he said, a smile of liking heard in his voice despite the threatening words. "Still, your offer is tempting. But one question remains."

"And that is?"

"You have the power over those armies you speak of, so why then seek help from others? Why can't you do this search on your own?"

Silence entered the great stone hall for a moment, letting no sound be heard above the soft hissing of the flames and the pattering of rain against the frame stones of the tall, slim and glassless windows in the flannings of the outer wall.

A flash struck the ground close to the building and sent its bright light in through the windows, giving the gloom a sudden change of characteristics as soft edges turned sharp for the brief time that it lasted. As the wall shaking thunder died out, the visitor spoke.

"I can't do it myself for the same reasons that you haven't been able to yet fully conquer this world that you're in; limitations," he said with a hint of frustration apparent in his voice. "I need to collect the parts from different worlds with great gaps between them and this means I'll have to travel through the portals of the dark void. I can do this, but each travel weakens me severely, since my body is not what it should be. Broken and weak as this flesh of mine is, I would drain myself before I even had half of the pieces I'm seeking. And the heartless needs a strong mind to guide them, a leader to follow them to each site, or they would not be able to stay focused on the search."

"So, what you ask of me, is to lead them and keep them under control? An army of such easily distracted creatures cannot possibly be as powerful as you say," the other one replied, ready to decline the offer.

"Oh, but they are," his visitor insisted grimly. "It's just that their nature makes them less capable of grasping a more complex thought. What they do have, though, is just what it takes to follow a direct command in the moment of action. They are, however, very efficient even if you should set them loose to follow their own whims."

As he said this, he snapped his leather clad fingers and the shadows of the room suddenly started to change, getting a more distinct shape and slowly rising up from the floor. Man sized, slim figures of pure darkness with claw tipped fingers, yellow glowing orbs for eyes and long back bent antennas on their heads now stood behind the visitor, silent and watching. Smaller versions crawled down from the ceiling and across the floor, flat as ordinary shadows, until they reached their master and took a more multi-dimensional form.

The other hummed with interest as his minions in turn entered the room on a given signal. The two groups of demonical beasts clashed and within a minute the latter of the groups were screaming with fear as they left the room, hunted by their former comrades, now turned into shadow beasts themselves.

As the master of the winners once more snapped his fingers, the shadows stopped their advance and all but two crept back into the floor. The ones remaining gathered to stand behind their master, eagerly waiting for his next command.

"I'm impressed," the other said and let out a short laughter. "You are an intriguing young man, I must say. Fearless and bold. I like it."

"I assume that this means you'll accept my offer?"

A silent nod sealed the contract, greed glowing in the eyes hidden underneath the wide hood of the cape that the new ally wore to conceal his true nature to those who followed him.

"Excellent," the visitor said with a pleased grin. "Then I suggest we set this plan in motion."

"I've already started," the other replied with his hungry red eyes resting on the shadows standing by the visitor. "Where do we find the first part?"


	4. 3 Storm clouds

**Chapter 3: Storm clouds**

"…_Though this might just be the ending, of the life I held so dear…, I won't run, there's no turning_ _back from here…"_ (Within Temptation, _Stand my ground_)

"Finally, what took you so long?" Riku called out to his friends, raising a hand clad in a fingerless black glove to greet them, as they climbed out of the boat they'd taken over to the island.

He wore a pair of navy blue pants in a soft fabric, loose and wide at the bottom of the legs, which was probably why he'd stuffed them into his ankle high black boots, so as not to get 50% of the beach with him back home inside his pants. From the belt at his waist hung a pair of black leather straps on each side of his hips, in which he at the moment had fastened his keychain, the keys to his home jingling softly with each step he took. The black skintight and sleeveless turtleneck top enhanced the lines of his fit and muscular upper body, even more so as his upper arms were exposed to the sun, already putting on a slight tan, and the short yellow wide collar vest standing out against the rest of the outfit made the turquoise of his eyes stand out even more so.

Sora put an arm behind his head and scratched nervously in a gesture that he'd imprinted into his way of being since early childhood.

"Well, I sort of lost track of time, sorry for keeping you waiting."

Kairi came up behind him, her long dark red hair tied up behind her head in a ponytail that reached just below the lilac fabric of the white brimmed jacket that covered her shoulders. Her chest was heaving heavily beneath the tight black top as she struggled to walk quickly and silently up the slight hill of sand, her ankle high lilac boots struggling to find a grip in the giving material. The knee long skirt, in the same color as her jacket and boots, had wide slits on each side reaching almost all the way up her thighs, a zipper lining telling that she'd chosen to wear it in that fashion, freeing her legs and making it easier to move. The black brim of the skirt flapped softly against her knees as she moved, showing the black thigh-long leggings underneath. At her waist she wore two loosely hanging thin black belts that held a number of small pockets, one of them revealing a star shaped good luck charm made of thalassa shells. It was the same charm she'd once given to Sora, who gave it back to her when he finally returned home, having fulfilled a promise to do so.

When Kairi was just behind Soras back, she straightened herself up and pushed hard at him from behind so that he almost lost his balance.

"Hey!" he cried out as he tried to regain his stance before falling over.

"_We_ lost track of time. I was part of the delay as well, so don't you go taking all the blame," she reprimanded him and Sora muttered something unintelligible under his breath in response.

Riku laughed heartedly and gave Kairi a welcoming hug.

"I don't mind waiting as long as the weather's fine, you know," he said smiling and looked up at the slowly darkening, but still clear blue sky. "You can consider yourselves lucky that summer's almost here. If it had been raining, I would have been really mad by now."

Kairi looked up at him with a smile on her face.

If Sora had grown much the last two years, Riku had grown a little less, but he was still way taller than her and just a tiny bit taller than Sora, much to the younger teen's demise. But while Sora had also changed radically in a number of ways, Riku had pretty much stayed the same since they came back. Sure, he was a lot easier to talk to and much softer in his manners now than before it all began, but in many ways he was still pretty much the same, apart from one thing.

About a month after his return, he'd decided to get rid of his mass of long silvery hair, blaming the trouble of getting it all sorted out every morning before going to school, where he had been forced to tie it up in a ponytail anyway. So, since then, he sported a much shorter hair cut, still silvery white, but a bit easier to handle. He had kept part of his bangs, but brushed it to the side so that it rested diagonally across his forehead, showing off more of his soulful eyes than he had ever shown before, the rest of the hair ordered in a tangle of messy soft waves. He had been quite surprised himself to find out that his hair was actually naturally wavy when cut short, and the result of his change of style had been a horde of squeaking fangirls trying their best to make him notice them, whenever he moved about in a crowd. Sora had found it quite funny, but Riku himself had almost wanted to dig himself a hole to hibernate in until the world turned back to normal again.

Kairi looked back at Sora in a quick comparing and once more a strange sadness snuck into her chest. He had been the one out of the two of them who everybody had flocked around. He used to be all smiles and trouble free with an attitude towards life that was envied and admired. When Sora and Riku returned two years ago, things had happened during their time away that had changed them, and most of all, it had changed Sora. The change from carefree into serious and careful was something his former large group of friends hadn't been able to cope with.

When it came to his clothes, Sora had kept to the colors he'd always preferred, even managed to hold on to his strange liking of slightly over sized yellow shoes. The ones he wore now were no exception; high boots reaching up to the lower part of his calves, buckles and details, as well as the thick soles, breaking off from the bright yellow color by being black. The hems of the black and slightly baggy pant legs were stuffed into the top of said boots, much in the same fashion as Riku's. Further up the legs there was a thin decorative red line that matched the red pocket bags he'd strapped onto each side of his waist, using two loosely buckled yellow leather belts that criss-crossed over the hips. Over this he had a red, skin tight sleeveless top with an all the way zipper in front, one of his favorite wears, just as the ever present chain necklace with a three spiked silver crown, combined with a black vest with a wide white hood. The newest addition to his wardrobe was a pair of midnight blue, fingerless leather gloves that went up covering most of his lower arm, kept up by a number of black leather straps.

Sora noticed her looking and gave her one of his now rare sunshine smiles, making her suddenly feel ashamed of her thoughts.

Sure, he was changed, but who wouldn't be? Deep down inside he was still the same boy she had grown up with; a boy who had traveled through distant worlds to find her. A boy who had done all he could to save, not only his friends, but countless of worlds as well, from a fate far too horrid to think of.

She walked up to him and took his hand as they started walking across the beach, all three of them enjoying the company of one another in silence.

Riku looked at his two friends as they walked a bit ahead of him and felt warmth spreading in his chest, a happiness caused by their presence. He would give his life to save them if he had to; he knew it with every fiber of his being. Sora had saved him, believed in him when he hadn't believed in himself. And Kairi had been the one to make him realize his worth once more, giving him the strength to face the friend he had betrayed, a friend who'd given all he had in order to find him.

He sighed as he noticed the worn look in his friend's eyes.

Even though Sora was clearly happy when he was together with the two of them, Riku knew he was more troubled by his nightmares than he said. Something had to be done, or the lack of sleep they caused him would start to destroy far more important things than his grades in school.

But what could be done?

Riku bit his lip with frustration at the thought of it all.

He felt so helpless!

How does a person chase away another's bad dreams?

Not even Kairi had managed it, and she was still the very reason for Sora to still be in one piece.

He shook his head to rid himself of the dark thoughts, knowing all too well how easy it was to fall into a very deep pit of that darkness if he didn't watch himself, and he meant not to ever do that mistake again. Instead, he ran up to his friends, slapping a hand onto Sora's back as he rushed past him.

"I bet I can still out run your sorry asses!" he called out over his shoulder with a smirk.

"Oh, you're _so_ not winning this!" Sora yelled back and picked up his speed, something of his old self shining through in his face at the starting of the well known game.

"And you're _not_ leaving me out of it this time!" Kairi joined in laughing and ran after them as soon as she picked up on what was going on.

The three of them ran together towards their favorite spot over at the bridge-linked smaller island some ways off into the water. For a moment all that was heard was the sound of their feet pounding into the soft dunes of the beach and their heavy breaths as they ran. For a short moment, all was as it should be and once had been.

"Hah!" Sora called out with a victorious grin on his lips as he smacked his hand onto the bent over trunk of the paopu tree, panting heavily as he bent down over his knees to catch his breath.

Riku slowed down into a jog for the last five steps and smiled, raising his eyebrows in surprise at the outcome of the lap. Kairi was not far behind, and as she reached them, she more or less stumbled into Sora's arms and gave him a light kiss on his cheek.

"Now that was fun," she said and crawled up onto the tree trunk.

"Yeah, Sora, when did you get that fast?" Riku asked, still panting from the effort of trying to keep up with his friend.

Sora's smile widened.

"Well, I guess these long, thin twigs that I call my legs are adjusting with my length," he said and winked at Riku, who had formerly teased him for being stretched out only one part at a time, his legs being somewhat longer than Riku's, while Riku's over all composition was a bit more evenly portioned between his legs and his upper body.

Riku gave in and admitted his defeat with a soft chuckle.

"Alright, I confess; I'm no longer the fastest one of us," he said and joined the others on the tree, turning himself to face the ocean, just like them.

As the sun was setting, painting gold and fiery red over the sky and the ocean before them, Sora suddenly felt a chill in his bones that didn't originate in any wind.

Something inside of him seemed to tell him to be prepared.

Feeling both annoyed and worried by this sudden interruption of his newfound happiness, Sora looked over his shoulder, almost expecting someone to be standing there, watching them.

Kairi noticed the change in his mood and put a hand on his arm.

"What is it Sora?"

Riku perked his ears at the worried sound of her voice and looked at his friend.

"Is something wrong?"

Sora shook his head slowly.

"Nah, I don't know. I just got this strange feeling…" he said, his voice trailing off as an actual wind of icy air suddenly ruffled his hair, followed by a far harsher push of the same against them all, ripping at the leaves of the tree they were sitting on.

"Wow! This… this is some weird wind!" Kairi huffed as she got down from the tree trunk to take some cover behind it.

Sora and Riku jumped off as well, both of them scanning the area with a growing feeling of unease.

"I don't think it's natural," Sora mumbled and with one hand on the trunk, he suddenly jumped over to the other side and started running.

"Sora! Where are you going?" Kairi called out after him as she got herself around the tree and followed him, Riku running beside her.

Sora didn't answer. He was fully occupied by the inner compass that told him danger was up ahead and that he should see to that he got to it before his friends.

As he was at the middle of the bridge, he changed direction and ran out into the air, taking a long leap down onto the beach beneath them, landing softly in the sand and taking off towards the dock where they'd left their boats.

While he was running, he noticed the sky getting darker, pitch black storm clouds gathering quickly in the sky.

_This isn't happening,_ he thought as he ran, hearing his friends call out for him from behind. _This isn't happening! Not now, not again!_

He skidded to a stop as he reached the shore, looking up at the whirlwind of darkness that was forming itself in the sky as the wind increased in strength.

It all happened so fast.

In an instant the last rays of sunlight were drowned at the far off horizon and the sea was in an uproar.

A chilling premonition shook Sora's body, causing him to turn around on his heels to face whatever danger it was that he felt creeping up on him from behind.

At the sight of the first pair of glowing eyes, he knew.

His heart shrunk and his mind froze in disbelief.

He had closed the door.

He had defeated them.

And still…

"Heartless!" he called out over the roar of the wind and sea, hoping to give his friends a warning before they reached him.

He quickly shut his eyes and for the first time in two years, he reached inside for that glowing light that he knew to be there still, dormant until needed.

When he felt the warm strength of his weapon seeping into him from the metal grip he held in his hand, he opened his eyes and raised the Kingdom Key in front of him in a battle ready stance.

The Shadow suddenly rushed towards him, noticing the power surge.

Sora gritted his teeth as he spotted his friends in the corner of his eye.

"**Leave**…"

More shapes were forming in the darkness around him and he could sense how Riku activated his own blade.

"…**me**…"

The shadow closest to him jumped.

"…**ALONE!**"

Sora yelled out with rage as he swung the keyblade home, the heartless evaporating at the hit. Then all was chaos for a moment, as all heartless rushed forward. Sora found himself fighting with a frenzy that almost surprised himself. With each swing of the blade he took out at least ten of the creatures, but they kept pouring in on him. And all the while he knew he had the power to defeat them all. He knew how to tap that power, but he couldn't do it. Without someone else to lend him magical aid, he couldn't use any of the drives. He'd already tried that once and the result had been horrible… The memory of black claws and a raging bloodlust was all too powerful for him to ever want it to happen again. So instead he pushed on, using what magic he still knew he had and lashed out with all his might at the oncoming enemies.

Riku was there by his side for a moment, trying to get closer so that he could support his attacks, but he was hindered by the heartless.

"This isn't right!" Riku called out as he slashed two of the attacking creatures in half, Way to the Dawn bristling with energy in his hands.

"What?" Sora yelled out in question.

"They're keeping us apart! It's as if they're doing it on purpose!" Riku yelled back, struggling to keep his position.

Sora took a high jump into the air and turned over his shoulder as he did so, causing the keyblade to build up a higher speed while he surged it with magical power before he released it. The Strike Raid swept over the mass of shadows and cleared a large spot of the beach within a matter of seconds. Sora landed from the jump, put up his hand and grabbed the weapon as it came spinning back, already running towards Riku.

"What are you saying?"

Riku wiped the sweat off his forehead and took a new grip on his blade as Sora closed in on him.

"I'm saying that they're acting as if they're controlled by someone!" he replied and readied himself as the heartless once more started to slither towards him. "Someone who knows to keep us apart in a fight!"

Sora rushed forward and slashed down one of the larger enemies before it had a chance to get at his friend.

"Where's Kairi?" he asked Riku as a sudden panic got into his chest. If the heartless were somehow controlled and if whatever or whoever controlling them knew who he was, then Kairi was in danger.

Riku seemed to have got the same thought, the same worry creeping into his eyes as he searched their surroundings for her. Sora noticed a surge of power from somewhere behind his back and spun around.

"I'm right here!" Kairi called out to him, a golden, shimmering keyblade in her hands. She swung it forcefully at the heartless surrounding her and a number of them vanished from existence as they got hit. Sora had almost completely forgotten that Kairi had got herself a blade as well and he was somewhat relieved to see that she was able to defend herself against the enemies, all though she wasn't nearly as good at using the weapon as Riku or himself, seeing that she hadn't had as much practice as the two of them.

Letting loose another Strike Raid, Sora cleared a path between himself and Kairi and dashed towards her, wanting to at least be by her side, if not by Riku's. But the heartless were fast to fill in the gap in their lines.

Suddenly Sora felt a chilling touch at his ankles and froze in his step, instinctively swinging his blade down to strike at the heartless that somehow had managed to sneak up on him and then grab at him from the pool of black it had created in the sand right beneath his feet. The heartless disappeared, but not the black pit of liquid darkness that he now was stuck in, sinking faster by the second and fighting off the shadows that kept coming at him from all sides.

Riku was the first to see what was happening and in a panicked outcry he cut manically through the shadows standing in his way as he rushed towards his friend. Seeing Sora sink fast into the dark pool underneath was like watching a scene from one of his nightmares and Riku fought with all his might to get to him in time.

Four steps away.

Three…

Two…

Then a Neo Shadow rose in front of him, dodging his blade and lashing out at him, forcing him to move back.

"_NO!_" Riku called out in rage and panic and reached inside the darker corners of his soul for a power that he had stored away with the hope of not having to use it ever again.

The Dark Blast shot through the air even before he was fully aware of what he was doing and the man sized heartless disappeared almost instantly.

Riku didn't waste any time and dashed forward, reaching out a hand in front of him as he threw himself down on the sand, grabbing hold of the hand that Sora stretched out in his direction and pulled with all his might.

Sora was down to his chest in the darkness, his body slowly going numb from the cold it produced in his every limb. He'd been hanging on to the Kingdom Key for as long as he could and only let it go in order to take Riku's hand as he skidded towards him in the sand.

Kairi had seen it all and fought to get to the spot as well; with a want to help keep the heartless away for as long as it would take Riku to pull Sora back up. He _had to_ make it!

She slashed at the shadows around her and jumped over a few of them before fighting off some more of them. Surprised by her own success, she suddenly found herself standing in front of Sora just in time to lash out at a heartless ready to jump at Riku from behind his back.

"Kairi! Get a hold of him, and I'll switch places with you!" Riku called out as soon as he noticed her being there.

She didn't argue with him, knowing that he was far better at using his keyblade than she was at using hers, a conclusion he had come to as well. She dived down on the sand and clasped her hands around Sora's wrists almost at the same time as Sora took hold of hers and Riku pushed himself up in a fighting position, instantly taking on the heartless that circled them. Kairi pulled with all her might, ignoring the strain she felt on her arms and shoulders as she fought against the pull from the dark pit that was steadily getting more inches of Sora's chest under its surface.

Sora struggled to keep in the cry of pain that he wanted to release as the dark pool came in contact with the scar over his heart. It was as if it had noticed a weak spot and now directed all its energy on it, tearing at his skin with a burning cold. Despite his tries to avoid it, the scream still came out as another inch of his chest sunk into the black swirls.

Kairi flinched at the sound and seeing the pain reflected in Sora's eyes, her own started to fill with tears for his sake.

"Hold on!" she called out to him, renewing her grip on his wrists as she felt him slipping.

"I… I'm trying!" Sora called back as he gasped for breath. "It's… it's trying to get… to my heart!"

"I won't let that happen!" Kairi replied fiercely and tried once more to get a better hold on him as she fought to stay put on the sand herself.

Without knowing how she was doing it, she suddenly realized that she was glowing.

A white light enclosed her as she struggled to hold on to Sora.

The heartless started to back off, sensing danger beyond that of the attractive keyblades, and Riku turned to see what was causing the retreat.

"Kairi! How are you doing that?" he asked, stunned and hopeful, getting back onto his knees and taking a hold on Sora's arms.

"I… I don't know…" she replied. "But it's not…working!"

And she was right.

Despite it having a much useful effect on the heartless around them, it didn't seem to effect the dark hole into which Sora was still relentlessly being pulled.

"Come on!" Riku grunted as he pulled as hard as he could, without any other result than making his entire body scream out with pain as muscles were pulled and one of his shoulders almost popped out of its socket.

Sora was very dimly aware of what was happening, the cold now affecting his consciousness. He struggled to stay focused and felt the hands of his friends around his wrists slipping to hold his hands.

"Sora!" Kairi cried out with heartbreaking pain as she noticed the suddenly blank look in his eyes.

The light enclosing her grew more intense for a moment, and Sora seemed to snap out of the state he'd been in.

At first he took a new hold of their hands, but then he noticed them slipping way too close to the dark matter themselves, Kairi's feet only an inch or two away from the edge.

In that brief moment of fate twisting decisions, he made a choice.

"I'm sorry," he breathed out, all his heart and emotions in the words pronounced, "but I can't let it take you too…"

Kairi's eyes widened with fear and Riku felt something break inside of him, words clashing in his mind as he fought to find something to say that would make Sora change his mind.

Sora's sapphire eyes locked onto Kairi's sea blue.

"I'll come back to you, I promise," he said, meaning every word he said, just like he had done the first time he'd spoken them.

And with a last sad look directed towards Riku, praying for him to understand, he let go of their hands and slipped into the darkness.


	5. 4 A fate dreamed

_Author notes: This is a chapter referring to characters outside of the canon trio, who will become important later on, so bare with me, we'll soon go back to checking up on how Sora and the gang are doing. _

**Chapter 4: A fate dreamed**

"_I close my eyes and then I dream. I always wake up to a scream." (Don't wanna' let you go_, Five)

A short, and somewhat skinny, red haired girl ran as fast as she could across the street, not caring all too much about the morning traffic that she was endangered by as she did so. Angry honks followed her as she skipped up onto the pavement on the other side and continued through the entrance gates of Sheffield Institute.

With the air cutting her throat like sharp knives she rushed through the doors of the old school building of tan bricks, knowing all too well that the bell had called out for the first class of the morning already two minutes ago and that she wasn't going to get out of this late arrival easily.

Her white, red striped street dance sneakers smacked hard against the stone floor as she ran through the corridors to get to her classroom, sweat running down her back underneath the baggy, maroon colored, hooded sweater that she'd forced over her head when she in a panic-struck second had jumped out of her bed only fifteen minutes earlier. The blue jean pants were similarly baggy, constantly slipping a bit from her waistline as she'd forgotten to put on a belt before she left home.

She skidded around a corner and decided to keep her light grey jacket on, rather than loose a few more minutes of the closely guarded time schedule due to stopping by her locker. So, barely breathing and somewhat dizzy from the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she managed to stop herself before she ran into the door of the classroom, took one deep breath to calm herself as best as she could, and opened the door.

"Good morning miss Vandom, it's nice to see you every once in a while," her math teacher greeted her in a cold, disliking voice from his place in front of the blackboard. "Please, have a seat and tell me what time the clock is showing, because I'm dying to know if it's me or you who've miscalculated the never slowing passing of time."

Looking down on her feet she found her way to the empty seat in the room, storing away her excuse for later use on a teacher that would actually care to listen to it.

"You know, he had a point there, Will," Taranee said softly and put a chocolate colored hand on her shoulder as they walked out of the classroom about forty minutes later. "You've been late for the morning classes all week."

"And last week, and the week before that," Irma pointed out to them from behind. "Is there something you're not telling us?" the brunette added and jogged up to walk beside them.

Will blew a stray strand of bright red hair out of her eyes and sighed.

"I've been having these weird dreams lately," she said as they walked down the hall towards their lockers.

"Like nightmares? About what?"

Will looked up at the worried face in front of her.

"Rather night_mare_, Hay-Lin. It's been the same dream for three weeks straight now and it's starting to freak me out."

The small asian girl smiled comfortingly at her.

"You know what I do when I've got bad dreams?" she said and started walking backwards as the others kept moving forward. "It's something called lucid dreaming, where you control your dreams! I focus on things that make me happy and usually the nightmares go away without having the chance to really scare me."

Taranee raised a doubting eyebrow at this and adjusted her glasses that had slid down a bit on her nose.

"From what I've heard of it, that sort of control takes a lot of practice and it only works if you're able to realize that you're really dreaming," she pointed out. "If I'm right, Will probably needs a quick-fix that's a lot quicker, no offense, Hay-Lin."

The other girl let her smile fade a little, but kept walking backwards nonetheless.

"So, what's this dream about?" she asked, still wanting to help Will.

"Darkness," Will answered in a low voice as she stopped at her locker and got it opened to get out the books for their next class.

"Are you talking about your mood lately?"

"And here I thought _I_ was the funny one," Irma spoke up and stared at the tall blonde coming towards them from the other end of the corridor. "Very clever, Corny. I almost laughed this time."

Cornelia ignored the comment. Instead she focused all of her attention on Will.

"Seriously, you've been a bit gloomy lately. What are you girls talking about?" she asked as Will shut her locker.

"I just told the others that I've been having some really disturbing dream during the past three weeks," Will explained.

"So, what is it about?" Cornelia asked and ignored the look of frustration in Irma's eyes at the question.

"As I said, it's about darkness. Living, breathing darkness with glowing, yellow eyes."

"Geez, what kind of stuff is it that your mom lets you watch at night?" Irma commented on this and was rewarded with one of Taranee's sharp elbows in her side.

"Eoow!"

"This is serious, Irma. If she's been having this dream every night, it has to mean something's coming!"

"I hope not," Will said with a shudder. "In my dream we were trying to fight a mass of these, these moving _shadows_, but nothing seemed to work. And as they touch each of you, they seem to suck your very life force out of you and I can do nothing but watch as you turn into shadows yourselves, while I'm protected by the Heart. It's horrible!"

Her friends looked at her with understanding showing in their eyes. Dreams of true premonition had happened to them before, so they knew to take the warning seriously.

"Anyways, the nightmare gives me little rest during the night and when I finally manage to sleep properly, I'm so dead tired that I don't hear the alarm clock until it literally shouts at me to wake up or forget about ever getting a wake-up call again," Will continued and pointed at her sagging pants. "Hence the beltless pants of rushed dressing."

"Your alarm clock said that?" Irma asked with a bit of envy in her voice. "Mine won't do anything but buzz lamely until I punch it with something heavy."

"Well, since I discovered my technopath skills, my electronic devices have become a whole lot more helpful," Will replied with a slight smile on her lips.

"Hey, guys, we digress from the important of the matter here," Hay-Lin pointed out to them while she absentmindedly threaded one of her own numerous decorative belts into the loops of Wills pants. "There you go! You can borrow it from me until tomorrow. I know it's pink and all, but it looked way better with your other colors than the lime ones."

Will looked down at the thin leather belt that now kept her pants up where they should be and smiled gratefully at her.

"Thanks! It's perfect."

"What were you saying about digressing..?" Irma asked with a smirk and Hay-Lin blushed momentarily.

"Oh, yeah… uhm, if this dream is some kind of a warning, then maybe we should talk it over with grandma and see what she thinks about it. She might know what those moving shadows mean."

Will's eyes widened at the suggestion.

"Oh, I hadn't even thought about that," she admitted. The former guardian who had revealed their powers to them would probably know what it was all about, seeing that she had fought the dark powers of the universe for a number of years long before they had started doing so themselves. "I should go see her right after school today."

Just as she said this, the ground started to shake violently underneath their feet, causing the other students in the corridor to call out in surprised and somewhat scared voices. The movement was shortly followed by a deafening thunder that vibrated in their very marrows.

Will suddenly realized that there was a bright light shining from her chest, the necklace jewel that was the Heart of Kandrakar breaking free from its hiding place under her sweater.

"Girls! Outside, now! The heart is calling us to fight!"

"Seriously? Here? In Heatherfield?" Irma called out over the growing cacophony of chaos around them, but nevertheless following her friends out the entrance doors.

"I think we have no choice in the matter," Taranee pointed out to her as they gathered right outside the doors of the shaking building. "Look at the sky!"

Above their heads a mass of compact black clouds were swirling fast, darkening the sky and looking very much like a hurricane forming with devastating speed.

Will grabbed the Heart and held it high over their heads.

"Guardians unite!" she called out with a loud and clear voice. The clear deep pink jewel grew brighter in a flash of light that enclosed the five school girls in orbs of transforming energy as they all embraced the enhancement of their inner powers.

The devastating power of the unstoppable water flooded into Irma, the heat of the roaring fire lighting a flame in the soul of Taranee and the strength of the life-giving air carrying Hay-Lin on its arms, while the very soul of nature itself, earth, bloomed in Cornelia. And then there was Will, the harnesser of the tremendous powers of the keeper of the Heart, a power combining the other four forces into one, creating the pure essence of life in a compact surge of energy that was the quintessence, the fifth element.

As the lights faded away, five young women stood in the place of the girls, dressed in clothes in the colors of dark turquoise, purple, clear blue and soft green. The designs varied, but all in all the uniform look was quite effect full, especially since it came with a pair of black and green fairy wings that had grown out from between their shoulder blades.

They were the guardians of the Veil, a magical wall that separated the worlds of the universe overlooked by the servants of Kandrakar, a fortress placed at the center of infinity.

"Hay-Lin, we have a quite a storm coming, see if you can change that," Will called out and the guardian of air was quick to follow her order.

"No problem," she said with force and took off into the sky. "I'll be right back!"

But no matter how hard she tried, Hay-Lin could for some reason do nothing about the harsh winds pulling at her long black hair and worried she dived back down towards her friends.

"I don't understand why, but I can't do anything!" she called out. "The winds, they won't listen to me!"

Will pushed her eyebrows together in thought as she tried to work out what to do.

"Irma! Clouds are made of water, right?" she said after a brief moment of juggling alternatives.

Irma grimaced at the question.

"I know we're at school and all, but a pop-quiz?"

Cornelia smacked the back of her head with her open hand.

"Hey! Stop that!" Irma complained and stared grudgingly at the blonde, who stared back at her in agitation.

"If you'll stay serious for once!" she replied, her ice cold blue eyes drilling imagined holes into the brunette's forehead.

Irma quickly turned around to face Will.

"Sorry, couldn't help it," she muttered. "But, yeah, _usually_, clouds are made of water. Those things however…" She paused and made an inclination towards the swirling darkness above. "…I don't know what they are, but they sure as hell aren't made of water. I can't control them any more than Hay-hey managed to get a hold on this jet stream."

"It's not natural," Cornelia said as she tried to sense the composure of the matter that was quickly gaining in size above their heads.

"Which means we've got a major magic-user on our hands," Taranee added as flames started to show in her eyes.

"Ah, dear old Phobos, I presume?" Irma said in a bitter tune as she scanned the area for a sign of the dark magic lord prince of the Meta world.

Will only shook her head, knowing somehow that their powerful main enemy had nothing to do with this assault.

"It's not him. It's something else entirely. Something dark…"

With a pang of reality-shaking realization she knew where she'd felt that cold and empty presence before.

Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins as she saw the first of the creatures taking shape in the steadily growing shadows around them.

"Those things…" she whispered as she tried to break the spell of the shock the vision had set her in. "It's the shadows from my dream!" she called out to the others. "Whatever you do, don't let them touch you!"

The guardians took the warning to their hearts and created shields for themselves before they rushed into the battle.

Taranee lit up like a human torch, fire covering her entire being as she with rising anger let loose her devastating power to rain over the increasing number of yellow eyed shadows. Irma, having sealed herself inside a shell of ever moving water, used her powers to create lethally sharp spikes of ice that she shot out towards the horde with the speed of a machine gun.

Surrounded by a bubble of swirling air made compact as solid rock by speeding rotation, Hay-Lin created a storm of her own, shoving the enemies into the aim of her friends' attacks. The very ground moved up to crush or hinder the oncoming threat as Cornelia, husked within a bright green light of energy, focused all her strength towards the earth below her.

With a sparkling and buzzing energy field covering her body, Will sent out brightly pink colored beams of pure energy at the shadows, burning them to cinder.

But just like in Will's dream, nothing they did seemed to have any effect that lasted for more than a brief matter of minutes. They just kept re-materializing, relentlessly moving forward.

"They….won't…budge!" Cornelia growled between gritting teeth as she made a whole section of the battlefield ground rise up and smash a group of the black creatures into a pulp.

"It's like that…that damned thing in the greek myths, you know?" Irma huffed as she sent off another shower of death-bringing projectiles. "I cut down twenty, and I get fifty more to fight rising out of their corpses!"

Taranee sent a fireball thundering into another group of the creatures and retreated to get a bit closer to her friends.

"I don't get it," she said with heat. "They won't burn or melt, nor stay flat if smacked down or stay cut when they're sliced up and they certainly don't seem to feel any kind of pain. What are they?"

"A big, mean, lump of aliens that I _don't_ like!" Hay-Lin replied from above as she got herself closer to the ground.

"Darkness," Will said, her voice booming out into the air as an effect caused by the power she was exerting. "Pure darkness, that's what they are. The shadows of our hearts made into moving puppets."

"Great, now we know that. So, how do we stop them?" Hay-Lin asked and hovered closer.

"With light," came the answer. Will hoped that she was right.

"Sure thing! Do you happen to have a sun in your pocket that we could use?" Irma asked her and sent off yet another collection of ice darts.

"As a matter of fact…" Will replied as an idea took shape in her mind. She focused on her inner source of power and the jewel that was the Heart of Kandrakar presented itself once more in her hands. "…I think I do."

She cleared a wide area of shadows with a blast of sizzling energy and placed herself in its centre.

"Girls, cover your eyes!" she called out to her friends in a warning, before she poured all of her energy into the business ahead.

"Heart of Kandrakar, help me defeat the darkness!" she prayed silently to the brightly shining crystal in her hands, then raised it up high over her head.

"Give me **LIGHT**!" she called out with all her might.

In one instant the world was covered in a white light and time seemed to stop.

Will slowly opened her eyes as she felt the Heart stabilizing the energy flow and hoped that her plan had worked.

Horrified she saw that this had not been the deal.

The masses of black creatures were still there, decimated, but still far out-numbering them. But that wasn't the worst part.

In a means to protect itself and the now severely weakened guardian, the Heart had created an unbreakable shield of magic repelling energy around Will, leaving her powerless against the dire need within her heart to aid her friends as the enemy once more advanced over the battle ground.

She hammered at the protective shield with her hands, but couldn't do anything to break it, the Heart intent on keeping her out of harm's way.

As the battle raged on, she saw everything that happened, without a chance to warn her friends as they were surrounded.

To them she was invisible, the Heart's shield sealing off her energy in order to hide her from the enemy's eyes, with the side effect of hiding her from her allies as well.

Petrified she saw how one of the creatures raised itself out of the ground below Irma's feet and grabbing her wrist, the shield of water not bothering the thing at all. When the guardian of water went down to the ground as the chill of the grip traveled through her body, another of the creatures jumped upon her chest and while Will looked on in terror and screamed for the others to notice what was happening, the black demonic thing sunk its clawed hand into her friend's chest and pulled out a brightly glowing ethereal shape. Beneath the victorious monster, the body of the water guardian suddenly dissolved into a number of vanishing orbs of light, leaving nothing behind.

Will cried out loud and couldn't find words for the crushing pain in her chest as she saw it all repeat itself with first Cornelia, then Taranee and lastly, as she for a brief moment of careless acting touched down on the ground, Hay-Lin as well.

Curling herself into a ball of heart breaking pain, Will cried and screamed out her anger and sorrow, cursing the Heart for its selective protection and closed her eyes against the world that was swiftly overthrown by the liquid darkness that poured out of the sky as the threat against the invasion was finally eliminated.

She didn't notice the darkness had enclosed her sanctuary until long after it happened and as she did, she didn't care enough about it to feel scared. She just closed her eyes once more and fell into a very much needed sleep.


	6. 5 In dark waters

_Author notes: This is another chapter referring to characters outside of the canon trio, who will become important later on, so bare with me, we'll soon go back to checking up on how Sora and the gang are doing. _

**Chapter 5: In dark waters**

"_Many men have decided to stay alive, not because they want to live, but because they don't wish to give the surviving bastards the pleasure of seeing them dead."_ (Brendan Francis)

"What's up with you? Have you slept on a hedgehog or something?" Zoro asked in his usual grumbling manner as he looked his captain up and down when said person entered the caboose with the signature straw hat pushed down low over his head so that the brim of it hid most of his face. The short black hair was even more messy than usual, standing straight out from the scalp as if shaped that way by purpose.

Luffy D. Monkey moaned like an undead and placed himself on one of the wooden benches at the sturdy oak table.

The green haired swordsman opposite him raised a questioning eyebrow at the lack of energy in his otherwise so lively comrade.

"Really now? Have you been drinking? 'Cause if the rum is gone you're gonna' have to take the talk with Sanji all on your own when he finds out," Zoro said with an evil grin playing on his lips, looking at the captain from the corner of his eye to see if his comment had hit the spot. But the boy just sat there staring at the table.

Or at least Zoro assumed he was staring at the table, but he could very well have fallen back to sleep, since he couldn't spot Luffy's eyes behind the brim of the hat.

"Hey, buddy, are you awake?"

There came a grunt from the not sleeping, but very odd acting boy and Zoro decided it meant yes.

"If you're planning on having a hangover, you better have it done and thrown overboard before Nami gets up. She was mighty pissed last night for some reason and I don't think she'll go easy on you for trying to test the limits of your liquid tolerance".

Zoro barely had the time to duck as a fist plunged out towards him. Since he did manage to get out of the way, the hand shot past his right ear with only an inch or so to spare and hit the wall behind him instead of his head.

"Ouch," Luffy mumbled and slowly pulled back his extremely stretched out arm as Zoro looked at him with a slight worry in his features.

"Ok, what's wrong? You're obviously not hung-over, or you wouldn't have been able to aim that good, so why the dull mood?"

"I…" Luffy started out, but paused for a moment, as if in deep thought, then took off his hat and placed it on the table. "I had one hell of a bad dream," he said finally and looked Zoro straight in the eyes.

The worn look in the young captain's eyes and the overall impression of someone having been through hell and barley made it back, made the swordsman flinch.

"Woah! Have you seen yourself today?"

Luffy ignored the comment as another one of the ship's crew sat himself down at the table.

"Good morning to you too," Usopp grumbled as he didn't get an answer out of him. Then he turned to Zoro. "What's up with Luffy?"

"Beats me," Zoro replied, knowing better than to repeat to the long nosed sharpshooter what the captain had said just as he'd entered the room.

Usopp took another look at his friend beside him.

"Hey, lord of grumpiness, your shirt's on backwards, you know," he said after a moment's thought.

Luffy raised his eyebrows in wonder and looked down at his worn brick red, sleeveless shirt, which was, in fact, put on the wrong way.

"I'll be damned…" he mumbled surprised. "How the hell did I get the buttons done?"

Usopp and Zoro stared at each other for a moment of complete understanding of one another's thoughts.

"That's it," Zoro said and got to his feet. "What've you been eating this time?"

"Please don't tell me it's my pepper bombs," Usopp said in a pleading whine. "I've worked on getting the mix perfect for months!"

Luffy looked from one to the other with wide eyes, then sighed heavily as he gave in to their will.

"I didn't eat anything but the food Sanji served for dinner, ok?" he said slowly, Usopp letting out an ill hidden sigh of relief. "I went to sleep around midnight and I swear on my hat that I didn't drink anything either. I just had the worst nightmare of my life since I was four."

The two listeners watched him in silence as they waited for more information, but when none seemed to be coming without a bit of prodding, Zoro asked what they both wanted to know.

"So, what happened?"

" couldn'treachyou," Luffy blurted out in one breath.

"Say what now?" Usopp asked while he tried to figure out just what it was that the mash of words had meant.

"Nothing," Luffy replied, already regretting having said anything. "When's breakfast going to be ready?"

"After you tell us why you're acting so out of place because of something you dreamed, that's when!" a young woman's voice boomed through the caboose.

Luffy seemed to shrink into his seat as Nami, the ship's navigator and so far only female crewmember, entered the room.

"I'm not here," Luffy whispered as he put his hat back on his head in the same way a scared child would hug his teddy bear.

"Stop fooling around and just bloody get to the point so we can eat some breakfast and head for shore!" Nami said and took a firm grip on his backwards facing collar and pulled.

Now, pulling at one end of someone who can stretch out his entire body to almost any extent at all, always proved to be a somewhat frustrating business. Luffy simply let his neck and upper body stretch out and the remainder of his body remained more or less on the same spot as before.

"Luffy!" she sighed in exasperation. "Just say it so we can move on!"

"But I don't wanna'!" Luffy replied, his voice that of a grumpy and stubborn child.

"I'll give you half my serving of the pork chops we're having for dinner," Nami offered with a sugar coated voice.

Luffy just smiled meekly at this, which made his crew even more worried. Luffy never passed up on food.

"You could get half of my serving as well," Usopp tried.

Shaking his head slowly, Luffy chuckled, but without any real joy.

"Why do you care so much about it anyway? It's just a stupid dream that took me kind of off guard, that's all. I'll be fine as soon as I've gotten some food into my belly."

The red-blonde navigator sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at the comment.

"At least put your shirt on the right way around," she said before she leaved them to go and check on Sanji, the chef, who'd just entered the room and gotten started on the breakfast over at the stove.

Luffy blinked, surprised at how easily she'd given up on the subject, and did as told. Without taking the shirt off, he managed to complete the task simply by pulling his arms inside the shirt, wrapping them around himself and sticking them out through the opposite holes and twisting the shirt around with his arms.

"Pfft, show-off," Usopp muttered under his breath and Luffy smiled his first real smile for the morning.

"One has to do one's exercising in the morning," he said and flexed his arms for a bit. "See? All this stretchiness has to be regularly tuned or it'll get all stiff and useless."

"As if," Usopp replied, but a small smile crept into his face as he started to recognize the captain he knew.

"Ok, breakfast is served," a tall and slender blond young man said some minutes later. With a bored expression in his face he turned to the gathered men, carrying with him a large serving bowl of rice porridge. "Grab your own spoons and bowls," he added as Luffy's stretching arm snuck up towards the large piece of stoneware he was currently holding in his hands. In an impressive show of balance he raised his leg in a lightning fast movement and kicked the over-extended limb aside without the rest of his body moving as much as an inch to the side.

Just as Luffy was about to complain about the treatment he was given by the haughty chef, they all more or less fell to the floor as the entire ship seemed to heave itself over on the side.

"Holy seamonsters!" Luffy exclaimed as he quickly got a hold of the bowl of porridge that Sanji hadn't managed to keep in his grasp, saving it from being smashed against the floor boards. "Who's at the look-out?"

They all looked at one another and realized that the entire crew was in fact present in the caboose, meaning no one was keeping an eye on the topside activities.

"Errm…sorry?" Usopp managed to say as he remembered that said duty was his this morning.

Luffy didn't waste any time on yelling at the forgetful crewmember, just growled something unintelligible. He gave the bowl of porridge back to Sanji, before he stretched his arms out, grabbing a hold on the top of the stairs and shot himself upwards and out of the caboose by quickly retracting them without letting go of the wood railing he was holding.

He landed in a slide on deck, glad that he'd gotten his sandals on this morning, and scanned the area to see what it was that had happened, but couldn't find anything that seemed out of place, besides the ship having tumbled over its side just a moment ago.

"Did we hit something?" Zoro asked as he came up the stairs in a more traditional fashion, strapping his three swords onto the belt he wore under his green waist band.

"Can't see nothing," Luffy said in reply and shrugged.

"Well that's odd," the swordsman said slowly as he went to the reeling, looking over the edge to check the possible damage.

"Uhm, I think you might wanna' see this…" he then said and motioned with his head for Luffy to come over to where he was standing.

"What? We've got a dent or something?" the teen asked before he leaned over to check.

What he saw made him back off from the reeling at high speed.

"**HOLY FRIGGAZILLAS OF DOOM**!" he shouted out, a startled expression in his face that almost looked like fear.

The water closest to the ship had turned an inky black, and the strange darkness was spreading quickly over the waves surrounding them.

Zoro cocked an eyebrow in surprise at the reaction. Luffy usually didn't get scared, just surprised or amazed. Something was very wrong.

"That's a bit of an overreaction," he said calmly. "I bet it's just a large octopus or squid or something."

Luffy shook his head energetically at the comment.

"Nah-ah! I _know_ that's not a squid!" he said, a slight shiver in his voice. "We need to get to the shore, _fast_!"

"Hey, guys what's the ruckus? What did we hit?" Nami called out as she got up on the deck herself, Usopp and Snaji following suite.

"Nami!" Luffy called out from his place up in the mast where he'd climbed up in a try to spot a sign of land ahead of them. "How far are we to the closest shore? Quick!"

The navigator huffed with annoyance at the roughly spoken command as the other crewmembers got over to where Zoro was still standing, looking down at the strangely blackening sea.

"About four hours north-west of here, you dope!" she called back at him after scanning the area. "Why the rush? Did we spring a leak?"

The suddenly panicked expression in the young captain's face as he landed hard on the floorboards in front of her made Nami worried against her will.

"Is there no closer port what so ever?" he asked her with a trembling voice.

"N-not that I know of, why?" she replied, but Luffy just gritted his teeth as he looked from one side of the ship to the other, as if he expected enemy ships to crash in on them out of the blue. It scared the wits out of her. "Luffy, come on! Tell me what's got you so worked up!"

Suddenly the ship was shaking as if having hit rock bottom, making Usopp almost lose his footing completely over at the reeling. The sharpshooter would have gone overboard if it hadn't been for Sanji grabbing on to the back of his pants as he threw them both down on deck to get away from the danger.

Zoro rushed up to Luffy and Nami, pulling two of his three swords free from their scabbards as he went.

"You won't believe me in this, but we're under attack by the water itself!" the swordsman called out to his captain as he went past him towards the other reeling.

"_What?_" Nami exclaimed, disbelief clear in her face and voice.

"The shadows…" Luffy mumbled, the panicked expression exchanged for one of calm realization.

Nami turned to him askance, but before she could put the question into words, the ship heaved once again and then all was chaos.

Shadows looking like liquid darkness come alive with glowing yellow eyes were slithering across the deck in a vast number, joined by more sturdy looking ones that seemed to materialize right out of the floorboards.

Zoro slashed through the invaders as well as he could, having drawn the third sword as well, wielding it with his mouth as he went through the gathering shadows spinning like a minor tornado of glistening blades as he went.

Muffled explosions were heard as Usopp did his best to blow the enemies on his side into wet specks of oozing darkness, using a slingshot and a number of his special bombs and other projectiles. Sanji was accompanying him with long reaching and powerful kicks, sending the creatures into his aim. Nami had rushed up to them while putting together her long fighting staff that she always carried with her, disassembled and hidden underneath her clothes to be able to fend off unwanted attackers. Now it served as a shadow-buster.

But no matter how many they took out, they just got their pieces back together and kept going for them.

Luffy bit down hard on his teeth as he made a decision to get into the fight as well.

Using his abilities he stretched out over the entire reach of the deck and took a mighty swing at the creatures. Zoro easily jumped over his arm as it came sweeping, taking with it just about all of the black monsters and scooting them overboard all at once.

Zoro gave him a thankful grin and a thumb up in approval as he went over to the others to help them take care of the remaining pack over on the other side.

Luffy was about to join them, when he felt something grab at his collar from behind and before he knew it, he was flying through the air and would have gone into the dark water underneath, had he not been quick enough to reach out and grab the reeling.

Terrified and angry with himself for being taken by surprise like that, he stared up at the thing that had thrown him. For it wasn't an ordinary human standing there, glaring down at him with a horrible grin on its lips. Nor was it one of the shadows, at least not very closely related.

This thing wore a large black cloak that almost hid its entire appearance from sight, save what was seen in the midst of the darkness within the hood covering the head. And this thing had teeth.

"_Give me the sssshard_," the thing hissed at him.

"What friggin' shard? Are you stupid? I have no such thing!" Luffy yelled back at it and stretched for a bit to get himself rubber-band-shooting back up on deck and back on safe fighting ground.

"_Ssssuit yourssself_," the thing hissed and before Luffy had a chance to send himself off, the creature produced a shining blade out of the depths of its cloak and stabbed it down into Luffy's left hand, causing him to let go of the reeling in a cry of pain.

Without losing any time, the thing that was not human repeated the deed and sent the sharp and stinging blade into the hand that remained on the reeling.

Luffy fought to keep his hold on the wood, screaming out his curses towards the creature.

"Aaargh! _You fucking bastard_!" he roared and swung his free hand up to reach over the reeling and finding anchorage somewhere on the deck. Kicking away from the ship, Luffy sent himself shooting upwards, landing in a roll on the deck. He held both his bleeding hands pressed onto his chest, having gotten the other one free of the blade by simply pulling the hand free of the sharp object, causing the hand to rip into two barely attached pieces of flesh and crushed bones, but free nonetheless.

The creature only smiled wider and turned to look at him with glowing eyes of the same yellow sheen as the rest of the shadows.

"_The sssshard,_" it repeated as it came up closer to him.

"FUCK OFF!" Luffy yelled and sent one of his legs out in a wide range kick to hit the creature in the legs, but the enemy foresaw the move and grabbed a hold of the foot.

"Shit!" Luffy spelled out before he was thrown off his balance as the thing holding his other foot used his own momentum to spin him around and, at the peak of the circle, Luffy felt the grip on his limb loosen up and disappear all together as he was thrown high into the sky.

Panic fueling his speed, Luffy stretched out to get a hold of anything that could keep him from going into the water, but as he found a grip on the steering wheel, his wounded hand wouldn't close around the handle, the muscles needed for the act having been severed by the knife.

Without being able to do anything about it, Luffy found himself smacking hard into the water, hearing the terrified screams of his friends as they saw him go down.

Despite knowing he wouldn't get anything out of it, Luffy fought to move himself into a swim as soon as he located the dark surface, wanting desperately to defy and break the curse that said he would never be allowed to have the sea carry him by any other means than rafts and boats and ships. But the curse was intact, meaning he couldn't move at all, no matter how hard he wished to do so.

He was, however, still close enough to the surface to see through it as a shadow got hold of Zoro, who had tried to go in after him and get him back up. The creature reached out and pulled the swordsman back as another jumped up on his back, reached down into him and pulled out something glowing brightly even through the black surface of the water.

Luffy screamed out his despair at not being able to do anything as he saw his friend disappear into thin air.

The water pressed in on him, but Luffy refused to let the dark masses win over him. He simply refused it. He was sinking fast now, a strong current having him in its grip and forcing him down and away from the ship and his friends. As the lack of air was making him dizzy, Luffy tried once more to break free from the curse, but without luck.

"_No! I'm not giving in! I won't let you win!"_ he thought defiantly and for a short moment he even thought he was able to move his arms, just a little. But Luffy was no merman, and holding one's breath is a sport that one can't do for forever.

Just as the last of his strength was leaving him, Luffy felt a shiver go through his spine and the current that had him in its grip slowly turned him around. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a large black portal within the inky depths that he was struggling against.

When he closed his eyes, his thoughts went to his friends on the ship, knowing somehow that he would see them again. He would make it so. As soon as he'd gotten a moment's rest.

As the teen pirate captain lost his consciousness, his body was swiftly swept into the portal, only a moment before it closed itself.


	7. 6 Splitting up

**Chapter 6: Splitting up**

"_Reach for my hand, let's show them that we can free our minds and find the way. The world is in our hands. This is not the end!"_ (Within Temptation, _See who I am_)

"**NOOOO! SORA!**"

Kairi screamed from the bottom of her heart, feeling something inside of her break as she saw Sora close his eyes and slip out of sight into the dark liquid that they'd been struggling against.

With tears streaming down her face she lounged herself towards the black pool to follow him, hoping to get a hold of him once more, but was stopped by Riku, who'd snapped out of his own state of shock fast enough to react in time.

Riku wrapped his strong arms around Kairi's waist and heaved himself backwards, taking her with him and landing on his back in the sand behind them.

"**NO!**" Kairi screamed again, struggling to get free from his grip. "LET ME GO! Let me GO!"

The white light surrounding her grew in strength once more and Riku shut his eyes tight so as not to be blinded by it.

"Not until you CALM DOWN!" he yelled back at her, forcing back his own desire to scream out his pain at seeing the person he'd promised himself to always protect fall into the enemy's hands in order to, once again, save _him_. "Sora didn't want for us to go down that pit as well and I'm _not_ going to let his sacrifice be all in vain because of a rushed decision!"

Kairi closed her eyes, realizing that Riku was right, they had to think before they acted, or the darkness would take all of them prisoner.

With one final heartbroken wail, she forced herself to calm down and let her light gradually fade until it disappeared all together.

Riku let go of her, got out from underneath her and was on his feet in an instant, the Way to the Dawn materializing in his hand as he readied himself for the heartless that would come back towards them, now that the light that they'd fled wasn't there to protect them anymore.

Kairi bit down hard on her lower lip and tasted blood as she herself got up from the sand.

"Riku…" she began, her voice thick and shivering from the emotional eruption a moment earlier, but was interrupted by Riku, who's own voice seemed to vibrate from held back emotions, be it rage or great sorrow.

"We _will_ find him, Kairi. We'll get him back somehow, I promise!" he said and locked his eyes on hers.

Kairi nodded, giving him a faint smile to show her appreciation, not sure on how well her voice would carry.

Riku quickly turned his head back towards the enemies and Kairi called forth her own keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, and positioned herself so that they would stand back to back, not wanting the heartless to separate them.

When the first heartless jumped at her, Kairi focused all of her inner turmoil on the attack and swung her weapon in a wide strike that was followed by a shining beam of light that cut down even more of the shadows than she'd expected to hit with the blow.

Surprised she looked at her blade as it took on a white glow.

"Riku, my blade, it's…it's glowing!"

Riku forced back and cut through a group of shadows on his side.

"It responds to your heart! The blade works through magic, so use what you can, but be careful not to empty your magical storage completely!" he called to her over his shoulder, hoping his advice would help her figure out a better way of fighting besides simply cutting and slashing at the enemy.

Kairi renewed her grip on the hilt and focused.

She would not lose Sora again. This time _she_ would be the one coming for _him_. She would fight for him, to get him back she would do all she could.

The next time she swung her blade, the light beam swooped out like a scythe and decimated the masses with at least twenty shadows.

They fought like that for what felt like hours, but the shadows never seemed to lessen, they just kept on coming. Riku felt his strength starting to give in and he guessed from the worn look on Kairi's face that she was close to her limit as well.

Riku knew they had to get out of there, or they'd be overpowered.

But where would they go?

As he looked around them, all he could see was darkness, the rest of their world slowly vanishing into nothing as the darkness swallowed it up.

Just like before.

He squared his jaw as he fought, giving himself a mental slap in the face for the negative thoughts.

They were still alive and this wasn't like the last time. This time, he wasn't going to turn over himself to the enemy, and Kairi was with him. They would make it, one way or the other.

Suddenly he realized that he knew of one way to escape.

It was dangerous, but so was staying here. He had to try it.

"Kairi!" he called out over his shoulder. "Do you think you have any of that light left in you?"

"I think so," came the answer, followed by a heavy smacking sound as her keyblade went through one of the bigger heartless. "Why?"

"If we're going to get out of here alive, I'll need some space to move on," Riku answered. "Do you think you could clear us of these heartless for a short moment?"

Kairi didn't answer, but soon he felt a surge of energy starting to grow behind him. He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw how Kairi, her keyblade swinging repeatedly at the oncoming enemies, started to glow.

He turned his eyes back to what was in front of him and readied his own magic.

When she felt her magic warm her up from inside, Kairi took a steadier grip on the weapon in her hands, channeled the energy through it and bent down low to get as much power out of her legs as possible, before she took off straight up in the air in a high jump over the heads of the shadows. She turned the blade downwards and readied herself for the impact with the ground as she summoned more magic into the weapon.

When it hit the ground, Kairi let the gathered energy loose, creating a shockwave of light traveling through the ranks of the heartless and for a moment even lighting up their surroundings, slightly lifting the veil of darkness that now covered the island.

Riku felt the impact in his very bones and saw the heartless evaporate as they were hit by the outburst of light coming from Kairi's keyblade.

He turned and gave Kairi an approving smile, before he raised his hand and concentrated hard on a place he knew would be safe, hoping his aim wouldn't be too far off after not using the dark powers for such a long time.

A dark portal opened up in front of him and as he turned towards Kairi, Riku felt the opening draining him far worse than it had used to do, but kept it open nonetheless.

"Kairi, get in, now!" he called out for her.

She turned around, saw the portal and gave him a quick nod before pulling Destiny's Embrace out of the ground and straightening herself up to do as told. The moment the blade left the ground, the light went out and, sensing their prey getting away, the heartless swarmed in fast.

Kairi jumped through the portal and Riku was about to follow, when something caught his wrist and pulled him off his feet from behind. Desperate for Kairi to not be followed, he made a quick decision to close the portal and cut the power link to it, snapping it shut just as a large dark shape appeared at its side.

Riku didn't care to look closer at the creature that had appeared, but focused instead on the one clinging to his ankle.

With one slash of the keyblade, the heartless vanished and Riku was soon back on his feet, surging up more power to open another portal for himself.

"_The ssssshard! Where is it?_" a voice hissed in his ear from behind, making him jump from the shock.

Riku spun around on his toes and raised his weapon to strike, but was caught by the neck of his vest before he could do anything.

The thing holding him in a hard grip was not a man, nor a heartless, but rather, something in-between, its skin shadow black and its eyes a glowing yellow. But this creature had a mouth, with several sharp, pearly white teeth gleaming in the darkness. It was clad in a black hooded cloak that hid most of its body from sight, but Riku could still see the tip of a powerful tail whip back and forth below its hem.

Something with it reminded Riku of the nobody husks, but he couldn't pin point the reason why. What he did know though, was that he was just about drained on all his magical abilities and his physical strength was quite worn out from the fighting and this didn't make good odds against this creature. He swallowed hard and aimed a blow at the thing with the Way to the Dawn, but his hand was caught in mid-air by his captor's free arm, shooting out from underneath the cape.

"_The sssshard,_" it hissed with a toothy grin. "_Give me the sssshard!_"

"I don't know what you're talking about! Let me go!" Riku yelled at it and tried to kick it, but to no avail, the thing holding him just chuckled nastily as the arms holding him seemed to grow longer and thereby making it so that his kicking legs wouldn't reach their goal.

"_You hasssss it. I can senssse it. A sssshard of the Cryssstal. Give it to me now, boy!_"

Riku fought his rising panic and stared the creature in the eyes.

"I've never heard of it!" he spat out as he gathered his last resources one more time. "And what I have, I don't intend to let you take from me!"

At that, Riku raised his free hand and sent off a dark blast right into the creature's face.

It immediately let go of him and hunched over in a loud, hissing scream of pain.

Riku, charging up his power once more and knowing he'd get no other chance, rolled to his feet as he landed and shot up his hand. He focused for one intense moment on the same place that he hoped he'd sent Kairi to, and opened up a portal.

At the very second it opened up, Riku threw himself through it head first, and closed it just as his feet passed the opening, leaving a very raged creature staring at the air as its prey got away.


	8. 7 New target

**Chapter 7: A new target**

"_Darkness can't be defeated, only channeled."_ (Master Xehanort, KH- BBS)

"Your advance has been great I see."

The dark hooded creature knelt before its master and then stood up straight once more to report.

"_Yesss my lord_," it replied.

"Any luck in finding these…" he paused for a moment to find the right word, "…_shards_ that our ally ask for?"

The creature bowed its head at this, letting the hood hide whatever facial expression the dark thing could have had.

"_Sssadly, no, my lord_," it hissed. "_Not ssssince that firssst one that I gave you_".

"Have you done as instructed?" the master asked, his voice tense with annoyance.

"_Yesss my lord_," the creature answered, its head still down in a bow and no sign of worry apparent in its voice.

The master noted this lack of emotions and found it disturbing, as it could serve against his interests if the subjects didn't fear at least him. He had to do something about that, he decided.

"_I sssearched the worldsss for the brightessst ssshining heartsss. I sssingled them out and sssearched for the ssshards. No sssuccesss_."

The master hummed darkly at this.

"Did you at least manage to get all of them?"

There was a short pause of hesitation and the creature's master smiled, pleased with his alteration of the servant. A slight tap on the dark link between him and the subject was all that it had taken. This gift of his ally was proving to be quite the powerful thing when mixed with his own dark magic.

"_I'm sssad to sssay, no_," came the reply from under the hood. "_Thisss world's light, asss you know, essscaped before we could reach her. I have sssince then been to ssseveral other worldsss. In two I wasss sssuccesssful finding and questioning the perssson of light for each world. No ssshardsss found there. Thossse lightsss are now captured to enhance our powersss, asss inssstructed_."

"But the others?" the master asked, enjoying the surprised creature's discovery of its alternation as nervousness crept into its appearance, the shoulders narrowing somewhat and the tip of its tail flicking about below the hem of the cloak.

"_At one of the worldsss I had the light in my handsss," _it started with a dry mouth_. "I asssked him for the ssshard, but lossst him to the Abysss before we could take hisss heart, hisss light. A ssstray portal taking him, the heartlessss sssaysss_."

"Go on."

"_At another world, the heartless managed to find and almossst outpower the light'sss harnesssser, but ssshe essscaped right before my eyesss, usssing great magic, my lord. Vanissshing from sssight and sssensssesss_."

"And the last one?" the master said, thrumming his boney fingers against the armrest of his throne.

"_That wasss a tricky one, my lord. On thisss world, the light wasss divided. Partsss three, not one. All in the sssame place, yesss, but three people. Two of them tainted, but ssstill ssstrong, ssso ssstrong. The third wasss hidden, until usssed. The heartlesss got out of hand there, my lord. The light wasss too ssstrong! We got one, yesss, the strongessst one we tricked into a trap, but the heartlesss lossst him in the Abyssss, couldn't keep him they sssaid. Hisss heart opening a way to essscape, they sssaid_."

"But there were two more, you said?" the master grumbled, not liking the turnout of this report.

The creature hesitated once more, its newly inserted sense of fear telling it to be careful.

"_We tried, my lord. The pure one essscaped jussst asss I arrived. A portal ssshe took. The third one, the one deepessst tainted, I had him for a moment my lord. But he tricked me, my lord! He wasss light, ssstill usssed darknesss to fight! Ssssurprisssed me he did! And he opened a portal to the Abyssss my lord! By himsssself_!"

"He WHAT?" the master roared. "A being of light should not be able to go through those portals without suffering, let alone create them!"

"_He did it, my lord_," the creature reassured him, shivering slightly, but standing put in his bowed down position, the input of feelings not strong enough to make it defy its master by fleeing the scene. "_They had weaponsss. The heartlessss called them 'the desssirable onesss', thessse peoplesss' heartsss. Called them the 'keyssss'_…"

Its master suddenly stilled himself at this.

"The keys? I see," he said, remembering what his new ally had said as they'd gone over the plan.

"_There are those who can fight off the heartless, and the nobodies. They wield a weapon called the keyblade, and that is a weapon more powerful than it may look. At the moment, though, I know only of two key-wielders. These two should be protecting a princess of heart, one out of seven. If you come across those three individuals, then act with great care. Should you somehow manage to capture one of them, I wish you to bring that one to me. I believe I'll have great use for the heart of the strongest one._"

"You lost them?" the master asked slowly.

"_Sssadly, my lord. But their world isss taken_."

There was a moment of silence as the master thought over his options.

"Continue as before," he said taking out a piece of black glassy jewel from a small leather bag he kept at his waist. It was the one and only piece they had this far that proved that strange young man to be right about the existence of such a thing as what he'd spoken of. He hummed as he looked at the jewel shard, small and fragile looking, but filled with a more powerful darkness than he had ever come across before. "Keep your eyes open for these 'keys'," he said after a while of considering the facts he had at hand, "especially the one you lost in the Abyss, the strong one. If you find him, bring him to me."

"_Yesss, my lord_!" the creature said, straightened itself up and saluted him, before opening a portal and leaving the room.


	9. 8 A new beginning

**Chapter 8: A new start**

"_The importance lies not within the ability of never falling, but in the knowledge of how to land in order to always get back up again."_ (Words of wisdom within the teachings of martial arts)

"Hey, I think he's waking up! Mom! Get the soup warmed up!"

Sora grimaced at the sound.

He was hurting all over; in his muscles, in his joints, in his bones… His skin felt like a blanket of soreness, and his head felt like it had been banged hard against something unfriendly for quite some time. A slight groan escaped his lips as he forced his eyelids apart and then tried hard to focus in the sudden light against his eyes. Moving towards him was a blurry figure and Sora blinked a couple of times before he could see the guy clearly.

"Welcome back to the world of the living!" the stranger said with a smile on his lips.

Sora figured the guy was about the same age as him, perhaps a bit younger. He had brown hair cut short on the sides, revealing a gold ring hanging from his left ear, but it was kept long on top and at the neck, Sora spotted a thin braid. The clothes matched his hair in color, all being in a shade of brown; a dark and much worn leather jacket with buckles at the front, a tan shirt underneath this and lighter colored pants with wide legs that just about covered the top of the calf high dark brown boots.

The brown clad guy sat himself down at the foot end of the bed Sora was in.

"I got kind of worried there for a while, you were quite cold when I found you, you know."

Sora slowly raised himself up on his arms, feeling way older than his 18 years, and returned the smile.

"Thanks, I think," he said, his voice raspy as if he'd been screaming hard for an hour or so. "Uhm, where am I?"

The other guy smiled apologetically.

"Sorry about that," he said and patted the wooden bedpost beside him. "You're at my mom's place, _The Benbow_ _Inn_. I found you lying unconscious out in the swamps and brought you here. It's no hospital, but at least we've got good beds and food."

"Oh," Sora replied, thinking hard as he tried to remember what had happened that had brought him here.

He had been taken by the darkness. The heartless created liquid matter had been ripping at him from all sides and he had screamed as it had reached for the scar over his heart. It had hurt something fierce, a cold so freezing it felt burning at the touch and sharp claws without owners had made invisible scars along his entire body.

But just as he'd been about to give in to the prodding touches, the keyblade had materialized itself. Sora, who'd just about forgotten all about the weapon in the midst of all the pain, had grabbed the hilt as the last hope of a way out and without him doing anything, the blade had opened up a crack in the darkness, showing him a world of more colors on the other side. Not caring to look at what kind of place it was, Sora had desperately flung himself through the opening, knowing that it at least had to be better than staying in the darkness. He remembered hitting something soft and hearing a splash of water, but that was the last memory he had before waking up in this bed.

"Are you ok, buddy? You still look a bit pale, you know," the guy in brown said, looking a bit worried.

Sora slowly shook his head.

"Nah, just a bit dizzy," Sora replied.

"Alright," the other said, not entirely convinced. "I'm Jim Hawkins, by the way."

"Errr, I'm Sora," Sora said, a bit unsure of what more to add.

"So, Sora, mind telling me what happened? Were you mugged or something? I couldn't find any bags or stuff like that where you were, so if you had anything with you, I'm sad to say you might not get it back."

Sora just shook his head.

"I didn't… I just… fell."

Jim narrowed his pale blue eyes at this and leaned a bit closer.

"Fell? From where, a space ship? You were unconscious!"

Turning his eyes away, Sora ransacked his brain for an explanation that would do, but couldn't find any that fit. So he settled for a halfway truth, seeing as Jim, from his comment, seemed to be a bit accustomed to the thought of worlds other than his own.

"I… I don't really know. All I know is that in one minute, I was fighting off enemies invading my home islands, and then I tripped over something and fell into an opening, landing here, wherever here is."

"Sounds like a warp portal," Jim said, lowering his eyebrows in thought and proving Sora's assumptions right. "I've seen one once, so I bet there has to be other forms of it as well. Who were those enemies you spoke of?"

"Darkness come alive," Sora replied without hesitation, figuring he might as well give the guy a fair warning of what might come.

"Say what?"

"They are called heartless," Sora explained. "They look more or less like moving shadows with glowing yellow eyes. The first ones were created out of the depths of darkness in peoples' hearts, and they are what's left after a person loses their heart to them. They steal peoples' hearts in a try to regain their own lost light, but if you've turned into a heartless you won't turn back unless you get back your own heart. But as far as I know, that's only happened once."

Jim stared at him with wide eyes as he listened.

"You seem to know a lot about this…"

Sora nodded slowly, a strange sadness creeping into his features.

"You're bound to pick up a few things when you've spent two years fighting them."

Jim went silent for a moment at this, reflecting upon the thought of having to join such a war at his age. This guy sure carried a lot of surprises with him. If all that he said was true, that was.

"You said there was someone who'd managed to turn back from being a heartless," he said after a while, his eyes returning to Sora's and his facial expression telling of a hope to change the subject into something more optimistic. "Someone you know?"

Sora hesitated for a moment, then decided he should keep to the truth.

"Yeah, you could say that," he said and unzipped the red top he was still wearing.

"Who was it?" Jim asked, curiosity coloring his voice.

Sora opened the top up and Jim's eyes widened when the star shaped scar on his chest was visible.

"Me," he said.

The shock in Jim's eyes was easy to tell and Sora almost regretted having told him, but he kept his eyes at him while he zipped the top closed again.

Jim, recognizing a touchy subject when he faced it, decided to leave the rest of his questions concerning it for later. Instead, he picked up a thread of the conversation that he'd still missed to follow up.

"You said you were fighting them, so I guess there's at least some way of defeating them, right?" he asked, a tiny shine of hope noticeable in his eyes.

"You can't fight them with any ordinary weapons," Sora commented, glad to turn the attention away from his own tragedy for a while. "But yes, you _can_ fight them. What it takes is a strong heart and magic," Sora said as he slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed, careful not to spin too fast for his still hurting head.

He found his yellow shoes at the floor, somewhat stained by spots of dried mud, and started putting them back on.

"Magic?" Jim asked, doubt sneaking into his voice. "Are you kidding me?"

Sora finished buckling his shoes and sat up straight to look at him, his face as serious as ever, as he locked his eyes on Jim's.

"I'm serious. Magic from the light inside of your heart creates the most powerful weapons against the darkness that the heartless come from."

As he saw the still doubtful look in Jim's face, Sora sighed and held out his hand in concentration.

The keyblade was in his hand within a second, appearing in a flash of bright light and slightly glowing in the dim light of the room they were in.

Jim almost fell off the bed, staring in wide eyed surprise at the weapon now fully materialized in Sora's hand.

"Wow…" he breathed out as he gathered himself.

Sora couldn't help slipping a smile onto his lips.

"This," he said with an inclination towards the weapon in his hand, " is a keyblade. It's the one weapon able to release the stolen hearts from the heartless it hits, and in so doing, completely erasing the creature from existence. If it is cut down by any other weapon, be it ever so effective, the heartless will sooner or later regenerate itself and continue its pursuit of the hearts of others."

"So how do you get one of those?" Jim asked, his eyes still fixed on the keyblade.

Sora's smile faltered.

"You're not able to choose. The weapon chooses you, when the time comes," he explained, letting the Kingdom Key slowly go back inside him in another burst of light. "I don't really know how it works; just that it's the way it is. A gift… and a curse…"

Jim nodded as if in understanding and Sora was thankful for it. The brown haired teen reminded him, in a way, a lot of himself, the way he was about four years ago, before his seemingly never ending quest had begun. For all that he knew, the guy beside him could very well become a new and important friend, and he sure could use one right now.

"Oh, so you're looking for your friends?" Dr. Delbert Doppler asked while his dark eyes kept studying Sora as if he was an exhibition object of highest interest. They were standing in the big dining area at the entrance floor of the _Benbow Inn_, for the moment an empty room, save the three of them. Jim had explained that it was low season and that the few guests they had were sleeping at this hour.

Sora was still a bit dizzy from his headache and his body still felt more or less sore all over, but after having eaten a bowl of soup and a piece of bread he had felt strong enough to stand on his feet. Once the stranded teen had told Jim about his plan to try and find his friends, he had helped him downstairs to meet with Dr. Doppler, a friend of the family and, most of all, a man with a great heart.

The doctor (a science related title, rather than one of a person dedicated to the business of healing others, Sora had learned) was an interesting mix between human and dog, the later characteristics shown in his large dog-nose and the hanging triangular ears on each side of his head. In more or less all other means he looked human, from the dark brown hair held back in a pony tail, to his white shirt and brown vest, tan tailored pants and brown leather shoes.

To be honest, Sora had at first been a bit surprised by the man's appearance, not expecting this world to be one where different species of people interacted. But after having met two so strange fellows as Donald Duck and Goofy Goof, Sora had gotten used to seeing people of a different kind of heritage and quickly accepted the strange features. This had made it so that he wasn't all that surprised as the doctor's wife, Captain Amelia, showed up with one of their kids on her arm.

The woman was what could be best described as a humanoid, tall and very slim fit cat, without a tail. She was dressed in a tailored suit of navy blue and white with gold details. Her red hair was short and slightly curled over the big cat ears and contrasted sharply against her bright green eyes.

"If you're looking for someone, then the best place to go would be the _Montessor Space Port_," she said briskly, patting her somewhat distracted mate on the head as she swept by them, disappearing into the kitchen to talk with Jim's mom.

Sora turned to Jim, who was standing beside him.

"Where's that?"

This question caused the doctor in front of them to raise his dark brown eyebrows in surprise.

"You mean you don't know? Dear boy, how did you get to Montessor if you didn't pass the port?" he asked.

Jim and Sora realized they hadn't told him all of it yet and Sora decided to make the story as short and easy as possible.

"My coming here wasn't planned. My world was attacked by an enemy called the heartless, Jim can explain it all later," Sora said. "I fell through one of their portals and just happened to land here. Right now, I want to find a way to get back home, or if that's not possible, at least see if I can find my friends."

"And what makes you think they'd be here then?" Dr. Doppler asked, too perplexed by this rushed information to ask more about the whole nature of the heartless.

Sora shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't know if they are," Sora answered honestly. "I'm just hoping that they are. Since I landed here, my best guess as to where they could have gone if they followed through another portal; would be here. If that's not the case, I'll find a way to get to where they are, no matter where that'll be."

At this, both the doctor and Jim looked at him askance.

"You seem surprisingly sure of that," Dr. Doppler noted and pushed up his tiny glasses to the root of his snout-like nose.

"Well, I've been through something like this before, and I found them back then, so I guess I'll find them this time as well. I don't know anything for sure, but the least I can do is keep hoping and search for ways to find them."

A look of surprised admiration took place in the dog-like man's face, and he smiled approvingly.

"Then at least we can try our best to help you on your crest…errr… I mean quest," he said and gave Sora his hand to shake.

Sora took the offered hand in a firm grip and smiled back.

"Thanks! I appreciate it. By the way, Jim, tell your mom I'll do my best to repay her for her hospitality as soon as I can," he said, turning his face to his new friend.

Jim silently shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. She's happy to help a person in need when she finds one," he said with a smirk. "Besides, we've got enough to keep us going, with all the travelers passing the Space Port."

"Speaking of which," Sora cut in, remembering he hadn't gotten a clear answer on his previous question," where is this port, and how do I get there?"

Dr. Doppler pointed with a thumb in the main direction of the large window behind him.

"If you turn off the hologrammatic… hologrophic… erm, holographic shades, you'll be able to see the port in the sky," he said, stumbling over his words in a manner that Sora found a bit funny.

Sora went over to the window, showing a sunbathed field of rainbow colored flowers underneath a clear blue summer sky. He got some help from Jim to partly turn off the shades, revealing a much more grey scenery and a night sky filled with stars.

"It's over there," Jim said and pointed at what looked like a crescent moon and Sora blinked in wonder.

"So, how do I get there?" he asked, keeping his eyes at the distant port in the sky.

"Solar sail raft or the likes of it," Jim said and turned the hologram back on. "I've got a small vessel we could use, but it's too late to go tonight. We can get up there early tomorrow morning."

Sora looked at the illusion covering the large window and forced back an exasperated sigh. He was worried for Kairi and Riku and wondered what had happened to them since he let go of their hands. He figured that the heartless without a doubt had taken the islands, making a try to find a way back home pretty un-necessary. The masses they'd come in were far too great to have been defeated by anything less than an army. Had he and Riku been in top shape, then maybe they could have done something, but as it was, neither of them had used their powers actively for two years, which made them more or less just as capable as Kairi, who'd never used her keyblade for more than one fight.

The feeling of loss as he thought about them weighed down heavily on his heart and unaware of doing it, Sora lifted a hand and put it to his chest, lightly pressing down on the scar to ease the pain.

Jim looked at him with a worried expression in his eyes.

"Are you ok?"

Sora snapped out of his thoughts and moved the hand to the back of his neck.

"Uhm, yeah, just a little tired I guess."

"Does it hurt much?" Jim asked, nodding towards Sora's chest.

Looking at Jim's troubled face, Sora realized that the guy actually did care and wasn't just asking. Just like so many times before, Sora had had no problem with making a new friend on a world far away from his own. Something about this ability, however useful it was, felt strange. Especially since his old friends back at Destiny Islands had shied away from him.

"Sometimes," he answered Jim honestly. "Other times I just feel empty."

"You miss them, huh?"

Sora nodded and stared blankly at the false view the window showed him.

"They're all I have," he said silently.

Suddenly one of the flowers on the imaginary field seemed to move and Sora blinked in surprise as it swelled out towards him, for a minute hovering in the air right in front of his nose, before its petals melted together into one, fist sized blob of dark pink goo of some sort. As the hovering little lump of see-through matter opened its large, compassionate eyes, Sora realized that this was actually a living creature.

"Oh, so that's where you were hiding, Morph!" Jim said with a smile at the pink thing still hovering in front of Sora.

Morph, as Jim had called it, only had eyes for Sora though, and with a sad expression it suddenly broke out in a wail, tears showing below its closed eyes.

"Errr, there, there, don't cry," Sora hummed in a calm voice and cupped one of his hands around the crying pink blob.

Morph sniffled and looked at him again, forcing a smile onto its face.

"That's the spirit!" Sora said encouragingly and smiled.

Jim chuckled.

"Morph's kind of empathic. He's mostly all giggles and smiles and full of energy, but if someone's sad, he gets sort of over dramatic."

Sora felt his cheeks heating for a moment and looked the little creature in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for being such a depressive bastard at the moment," he said and patted Morph on the head. "No hard feelings?"

In reply, the pink little creature swirled up out of his hand with a giggle, licked Sora in his face with an enlarged tongue, before speeding off towards Jim, circling his head once, then continued into the kitchen.

Sora blinked in surprise, then couldn't help letting out an amused, hearty laugh, which Jim joined in on.

"That's Morph for ya'," Jim said, still smiling a moment later. "Can't really stay sad or gloomy for long when he's around."

"Where'd you find him?" Sora asked, still having a hard time not to giggle.

"I got him from a great friend of mine who had to go away for some time. He sort of gave Morph the mission of not letting me feel all too lonely in his absence," Jim said, a slight smile on his face and his eyes filled with a warm emotion that made Sora think of his own feelings towards his friends.

"Did it work?" Sora asked.

Jim nodded.

"Yeah, sort of. At first I almost couldn't bear the thought of not seeing him every day, but Morph made it all better. Having Morph around reminds me of him and makes me wanna' keep on going, so that when he comes back, he'll be just as proud of me as he was when he left."

Sora nodded in understanding. During two years of war against the darkness, he too had experienced moments of wishing to just give up. At the beginning, Kairi's heart had lent him the strength needed to keep on going, and after that, the thalassa shell charm she'd given him had served as a reminder of just why he was fighting, and of the fact that there still was a place for him in the world, where someone waited for him to come home.

"We all fall down on our knees sometimes," Dr. Doppler suddenly said from behind their backs and they turned around to meet his softly smiling appearance. "But no matter how many times you fall, you can always get back up."

He put a hand on each of their shoulders and looked at both of them in turns.

"So if the two of you are finished licking your wounds, what do you say of making up a plan for tomorrow, hmm?"

The two teens looked at him, then at each other in silence for a few seconds, before they burst out in laughter.

Sora suddenly felt warm inside, something clicking into place as he walked towards the kitchen with his new friends to meet with the two women in the kitchen and get some advice. He felt… happy. Despite the tragedy of his situation in total, he had found a place of peace, telling him it was alright to just be _him_. He looked at Jim and Morph with a smile as the little pink creature morphed itself into a miniature copy of the teen, teasing him to chase it.

In that moment, Sora knew with a heartfelt certainty, that he was going to make it back to his friends. He was going to rise back up, because he had friends who would support him and believe in him.


	10. 9 New acquaintances

**Chapter 9: New acquaintances**

"…_I've felt the pain, I've seen the hatred, and so many lives lost in vain. And yet, through this darkness, there's always a light that shines through…" _ (Celine Dion, _A world to believe in_)

The Montessor Space Port was like a huge city, hovering in space just outside the planet Montessor.

Sora stared in awe as he took the whole place in.

There were buildings of every thinkable design crowding along the narrow streets and making out the shape of the port. Right where he and Jim were standing, they could, if they looked a bit over what usually would have been a horizon way off to their left, see the curve of the city stretching out in the artificial sky.

Apart from the many buildings and the big solar ships along the harbor, Sora was a bit impressed by the mass of people of varying species that milled about around them. There were just about every thinkable shape and size of creatures interacting with each other more or less without any visible problem. The sight reminded him of Traverse Town, just that this was a far more crowded establishment, and on top of that, he got the feeling that these creatures all seemed to be from the same world's universe.

"So, where do you suggest we start looking?" Sora asked his guide.

Jim laughed.

"Well, we could try starting over at the hospital. If someone comes here without knowing much about the place, sooner or later they're bound to end up there."

When he met Sora's worried look he raised his hands in a calming gesture.

"It doesn't necessarily mean they're hurt, it's just that you've got the port's information center at the main entrance of the hospital."

A bit calmer, though not fully convinced, Sora followed Jim as they made their way through the crowd. Sora let his eyes fall upon the myriad of things in his surroundings, trying to find something that could serve as a clue to what he should do or where he should go next. He knew from experience that if the heartless had attacked his world, they most certainly had attacked others and would, sooner or later, most probably come here as well, unless he managed to prevent that from happening. If he couldn't find his friends here, then maybe he could find someone else who had been stranded here and could give him a hint of what was going on.

For a moment he came to think of Goofy and Donald and felt a pull in his chest, missing the presence of them, standing as he was on the brink of another war unfolding itself in front of him. Before this, he hadn't really realized how much it had meant to him to have those two to guide him through the beginning of his journeys. Donald's magic had helped him in his development as a warrior of the keyblade, giving his own magical preserves a boost when needed. Goofy had been a good combatant to have on his side, shielding him when needed and keeping his and Donald's backs free when they had their attention forced towards other matters. Now, he had to go off on his own, and after having had that much help on his previous journeys, being alone made him a bit scared.

Sora and Jim walked passed an alley, when suddenly Sora felt the hairs on his arms rise up, a chill travelling from the bottom of his spine and up to the base of his skull.

He knew this feeling, and he didn't like it one bit.

Jim noticed his friend stopping in his steps and turned to ask him why, and felt a rush of adrenaline go through him when he saw the tense expression in Sora's face.

"What's wrong?" Jim asked, taking in their surroundings in a try to find where the threat was.

"A dark portal is going to open somewhere around here," Sora mumbled.

No further explanation was needed, as Jim had gotten as much information as possible relating to the matter last night.

About thirty seconds later, Jim felt a static in the air as well, and both of them looked into the alley to their right as a black line suddenly cut through the air and widened into a full circle in a matter of seconds.

Sora rushed towards it, Jim following in his steps.

They had barely reached it, when there came a burst of water through the portal, together with a curled up shape landing hard on the ground before them.

Both Sora and Jim got the most part of their pants drenched by the oncoming water, before the portal closed itself, leaving no other trace of it behind, but the shrinking pool of salt water and a seemingly lifeless body lying in the midst of it.

Gritting his teeth as he in his mind cursed at himself for being way too right in his assumptions, Sora took a step forward and knelt down by the person lying there in the water, while Jim turned his attention outwards towards the docks to keep watch.

"Is he alright?" Jim asked over his shoulder, his voice only a little shivering after having seen something as inexplicable as this sudden opening of a portal without any obvious entering- or departing- device.

Sora put two fingers on the side of the soaking wet stranger's neck and felt a strong pulse. He sighed his relief and noted that the guy lying in front of him seemed to be ok, breathing slowly as if sleeping.

"Yeah, I think so," he answered Jim's question and turned the stranger over to lie on his back.

It was a boy, looking to be about Sora's own age. His wet black hair lay plastered against his forehead, pressed down as much by the water in it, as by the scruffy looking straw hat on his head. Right below his left eye he had an ill healed scar, making him look somewhat rougher than his otherwise boyish appearance let him. He was skinny, the sleeveless red shirt and the wide jean shorts showing pretty much of his body in the wet state the clothes were in, sticking to him like a second skin.

Reaching to take the guy up in his arms, meaning to take him with them to the hospital to recover, Sora noticed something that made him freeze for a moment.

The guy, despite being unconscious, kept his arms tight to his chest, shielding as good as he could, a very bloody mess that Sora guessed was one of his hands.

Sora quickly took the guy in his arms, straightened himself up with some effort, due to the new weight in his arms, and turned to Jim.

"I think we'll need to get to the hospital a bit faster than we planned," he said and as Jim turned around and saw the blood, he nodded shortly and took off down the street again, Sora not one step behind him.

"I know a shortcut," he called over his shoulder and turned around a corner in a slight jog.

Weaving their way through some back alleys that made Sora completely lose his sense of direction as he followed Jim, they soon had made it to the entrance of the large hospital building.

The white stone pillars at its front and the wide, sparkling white dome above serving as roof, made Sora think more of a religious facility than a hospital, but nevertheless he followed Jim through the automatic glass doors that slid open in front of them.

Luffy didn't want to open his eyes, but he felt like he somehow should do it anyway.

Last thing he remembered, he was close to drowning, floating off into darkness deep under the surface of a black ocean. Now, he felt a soft mattress underneath him, a pillow under his head and a warm comforter over him.

His hands felt like they were burning, but more in a healing way, than in that awfully painful way they'd felt right after the injury had been made.

Remembering the horrible thing that had caused the wounds, Luffy clenched his teeth.

He heard someone move slightly, somewhere close by him to his left, and this finally made him force his eyes open. Blinking a couple of times to clear his vision, Luffy turned his head to look for the one making the sound.

About four steps away, sitting slouched over the back of a backwards turned chair, was a guy about his own age, give a few years. He had dark, sand colored hair, somewhere between blond and brown, shaped in thick spikes. The outfit he was wearing was a bit strange: a red zipper top, a black hooded vest, long leather gloves of a dark blue shade, long black pants with big red bag pockets attached to his hips with the aid of two yellow belts, matching in color with his oversized shoes.

All in all, the guy looked a bit odd and harmless, slumbering as he was, leaning his head on his arms crossing over the chair's back. Despite this, Luffy got an inexplicable feeling of this guy being far more dangerous and powerful than he looked.

While the young pirate was trying to figure out just who this guy was, and where they were, the object of his attention blinked and slowly lifted his head from his arms as he turned his sharp blue eyes towards him.

"Oh, you're awake!" he said, his voice a little unclear from the short nap. "How're you feeling?"

Luffy was a bit taken aback at the familiarity in the other teen's voice, giving the impression of someone who instantly took a person to his heart.

"Uhm, I think I'm ok…" Luffy answered and made a move to push himself up in a sitting position, but winced at the pain coursing through his bandaged hands when he did so. "My hands are hurting like hell, though," he added and forced himself up anyways, quickly putting his hands in his lap as soon as he was sitting steady.

"Yeah, they were in a pretty bad shape when we found you, so me and Jim brought you here to the hospital for a doctor to fix you up," the blue eyed guy said, stretching his stiff limbs for a bit before he got up from the chair.

Luffy took in the information with some surprise. So this was a hospital? He looked at the white smooth walls, the equally clean and white ceiling and floor, the big window on the wall behind the guy who'd brought him there and made a notion that this sure as anything wasn't a place he had seen before. And he wasn't on the sea.

"Thanks for fishing me up out of the water," he said and turned back towards the other guy after having given this a moment of silent contemplation. "I was sure I was a goner when I fell in. But tell me, you didn't happen to see anyone else around where you picked me up?"

The relieved expression on the guy's face faltered into a bit more worried one.

"Hrm, about that… We didn't 'fish you up', you sort of fell into our arms from a dark portal, together with half a lake of sea water," he said and looked down on the floor as he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand.

Luffy felt his heart sink.

"So… they didn't make it then," he said, all air gone out of him.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and when he looked up, his eyes met with those clear blue pools of never failing care for others that belonged to the other guy.

"Hey, don't give up, alright?" he said, his voice firm and filled with emotion. "I know you'll find your friends again, as long as you never give up your hope of doing so. I'm going to do what I can to help you realize that hope, but in order to do that, I need you to keep it alive, ok?"

Luffy blinked, a little shocked by the honesty in the guy's speech. He was serious, that much he could tell. But who was he, promising that kind of thing to a guy he didn't know?

"Not that I don't appreciate your help, but, what makes you think you can actually do that?" the pirate asked him and gave him a doubting look. "I saw those creatures take out something from my friend's chest and he disappeared into thin air! How do you get back from that sort of thing?"

He didn't want to cry, but tears instantly welled up in his eyes as the memory of it came back.

"Who are you to say that you can make that kind of thing undone?"

Instead of asking Luffy what he was talking about, which he'd been more or less expecting, the other teen just looked sadly at him, letting go of his shoulder and straightening himself up.

"I've been fighting the heartless through two wars, each time putting the world back to the way it was before they ruined it. I don't know how it works, just that as soon as I get the darkness back to where it should be, things go back to normal and the hearts still intact return to their homes, recreating the people they belong to."

Luffy stared at him in wonder and slight disbelief.

"The heartless…" he mumbled. So the creatures had a name?

"Living shadows with glowing yellow eyes, taking people's hearts in a try to regain the heart they themselves have lost," came the explanation.

"And what happens to the people that these things take the hearts from?" Luffy asked, a bit afraid of the answer. With a heavy sigh, the other teen started explaining the way things worked with the heartless and the way that the heartless themselves looked upon the world.

The young pirate looked at the other guy with slightly suspicious eyes.

"And you know all this because…?"

It was barely visible, the wince and the sudden shadow passing over the guy's face before he corrected his expression, but Luffy saw it.

"I was turned into one myself," he replied.

Luffy raised an eyebrow at this, looking at the obviously _not_ heartless person standing in front of him.

"You don't look like one of them," he noted sarcastically.

"A friend of mine managed to bring back my heart to me, which saved me."

They both stared at the floor in silence for a moment.

"So…" Luffy said, breaking the silence. "You're saying you'll help me, but I don't even know who you are."

Blue eyes shimmered into life again as they turned back towards him.

"Sorry about that! I'm Sora," the guy said and reached out his hand towards Luffy.

"Monkey D. Luffy," Luffy said and took the offered hand, shaking it. "Call me Luffy. The pirate above all else, and captain of the ship _Going Merry_. Pleased to meet you."

Sora made big eyes at the title.

"A pirate captain, you say?" he asked, a smile playing on his lips as he remembered another pirate captain that he'd met. Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl had been a completely different kind of person than this young and probably quite energetic character he now had in front of him.

Luffy shot off a wide smile of his own.

"Yup. The best there is."

At that moment, they were interrupted by someone opening the door to the small room, coming in with a small box of what looked like purple fruits in his hands.

Sora turned smiling towards the newcomer.

"Jim, it looks like we've got a pirate on our hands," he said and took a fruit as it was offered to him.

"Oh, really now? I've sailed with pirates once," he said in response and offered Luffy one of the strange fruits as well. "Some of them were one nasty bunch of brutes, but others were quite nice once you got to know them. What type are you?"

Luffy smiled and took a bite out of the fruit, finding it juicy and sweet, much like a plum, only not as soft as one.

"Me? I'm not a big bastard asshole, if that's what you mean, but I'm not the kind of guy you want to be stuck with in a fight if you've done something to piss me off."

The guy Sora had called Jim, laughed heartily at this.

"I'm Jim Hawkins," he said as he stopped laughing. "And hopefully, I'll stay on your nice side."

About an hour later, all three of them left the hospital, ensuring the concerned doctor that they'd be careful with the wounded hands of her patient.

Luffy grimaced as he tried his less damaged left hand, closing it into a fist and stretching it out again.

His right hand was enclosed in a thicker bandage, meant to keep the stitches in place until his quite nasty wound had healed up.

"It still stings a bit, but as long as it will keep closed and heal, I guess I'm gonna' be back in shape in no time," he noted and let his face split into a pleased grin.

Sora couldn't help but smiling with him. The young pirate seemed to have that effect on people around him, Jim smiling as well as they set out for the docks.

They hadn't heard anything about anyone looking like Kairi or Riku, and though it had dampened Sora's mood a bit, he'd decided not to let it stop him and had instead gone for the next part of his plan; to find a vessel for his journey.

Jim had suggested they'd go see this captain that Amelia Doppler had recommended they'd pay a visit in order to get both a decent solar ship and a good trustworthy crew to sail it.

Not liking the thought of having to involve more people than necessary on this trip, Sora had given in to the idea simply because he couldn't come up with a better idea himself.

He was about to bring up the question once more, when Luffy suddenly stopped in front of a shabby stand selling star maps and a variety of other more or less useful space travel equipment.

Sora stopped as well, a bit distracted by the shining objects that had caught Luffy's eyes as well.

Hanging from the poles that kept up the large piece of canvas serving as shade and windbreak, was a number of small stones on leather thongs, giving off sharp reflections of light on the things that lay below them, whenever the sunlight hit them.

Sora got a strange feeling of familiarity as he spotted one of the stones.

It was colored in an almost glowing pale yellow, spotted with neon green and with a few stripes of black at its edges.

As he looked at it, it seemed to come alive before his eyes, emanating warmth drawing him to it like a magnet, like something or someone calling out for him to take it. It was almost like staring into the eye of an ancient beast, hypnotic and irresistible and yet so obviously dangerous that it should make him want to run away.

"These are some odd things," Luffy noted and picked up a cube of metal that looked like a fairly big, three-dimensional puzzle, with strange symbols carved into its surface on all sides.

"Yeah, odd," Sora repeated in a mumble, not able to take his eyes off of the yellow stone dangling in front of his eyes.

Without any of them noticing it, the owner of the stand had gotten back from wherever she had been before and now she was staring at them with eyes that seemed to be seeing right into their very souls.

Both of them snapped out of their staring and took a tiny step backwards in surprise as she spoke.

"These things are objects of high worth to those who lost them, and of great power to any of those who might be able to wake them from their sleep," she said in a low, smooth voice.

It was a rather short woman, her dark, curly hair mostly hidden underneath a thin dark shawl that reached a bit down below her shoulders. Her eyes were of an uncertain color, always shifting depending on the light that the dangling jewels cast off towards her. Another strange thing about her was that her face told nothing of her age. She didn't look young, nor old, and despite this, Sora got the feeling of standing in front of an ancient soul with knowledge that stretched far beyond his imagination.

From behind her he could see the glowing red eyes of what looked like a cat, staring at them with an intense focus that made Sora shudder.

"See anything you like?" the woman asked, her eyes suddenly directed towards Sora.

"Yeah," Luffy said, already recovered from the sudden shock the woman's appearance had given him, "this thing here looking like a puzzle box, what does it do?"

"Held in the right hands it creates life," she said, without taking her eyes off Sora. "Held in the wrong ones, though, it creates a massive destruction causing worlds to end and the darkness of lifeless existence to take over all that once was alive," she added, and Luffy quickly put the metallic cube away, staring at it as if it would jump him at any second.

"You are one special boy," she said to Sora, staring deep into his eyes. "And you heard the calling of the stone, didn't you?"

Sora gulped as he tried to look away but found himself unable to move his eyes.

"I think so…" he mumbled, his mouth gone dry.

"To think one thing and to know it, that's two different things. You don't _think_ it, you_ know_ it, or you wouldn't be standing here," the woman said, her eyes shimmering with life. "I am but a simple herbalist, a plant witch if you like, but I have ways of knowing when someone is more than what his appearance tells the world," she continued.

Luffy stared at them with a growing feeling of unease. The way that the woman was looking at his new found friend scared him in a way and the words she spoke to him didn't ease that odd feeling of uncertainty as it came to trying to figure out her intentions.

"Hey, lady, Sora's a good guy…" he started, but the woman interrupted him.

"I never said otherwise, young pirate," she said, still not letting her eyes drift away from Sora's, "but what do you really know of him?"

This made Sora freeze into the marrow of his bones, his heart suddenly aching at the thought of revealing all of his darkness to the friend, and Luffy got angry.

"Hey, don't go throwing insinuations around like that!" he growled, forcing himself to stay calm, reminded of his crippled hands as the sting of the wound shot up in his left arm when he tried to form a fist. "Sure, I may not know everything there is to know about him, but he took care of me and helped me when I was in need, and that's enough for me!"

The woman laughed and with a smile she finally broke the eye contact with Sora.

"My dear boy, you sure are a tempered one! I've never meant any harm to any of you. All I said was that you might not know everything about each other. We all have secrets," she said and gave Sora a wink, "but those are up to each person to keep or let out, and when the time comes, all secrets are going to reveal themselves."

Feeling a bit dizzy, Sora looked at Luffy and shrugged to show that he was just as clueless to what she meant as he was.

She reached up and released the leather thong holding the yellow stone from the rest of the dangling gems.

When she held it up in front of him, Sora could almost swear that something, inside the glassy surface of the stone, moved.

"Take it, master of the blade, and use it well," she said, grabbed one of his hands and pressed the stone into his palm, closing his fingers around it. "It called for you, and so you should have it. I don't know what it might do, but I do know that it belongs to you."

A little surprised at this turn of events, Sora wanted to object.

"B-but I don't have…"

"It's a gift," the woman interrupted him. "I won't accept anything in return, as long as you follow the voice of your heart and do what you must to save what was lost to the darkness."

Sora blinked.

"You lost your world too?" he asked.

The woman only nodded, no feelings revealed in her face.

"My world and a lot of great and strong hearts together with it, as no magic seemed to work against the shadows," she whispered and turned her back towards them. "Go now, but feel free to come back whenever you need my help."

In the shadows inside the little stand, the red cat eyes still stared with interest at Sora, before blinking and disappearing completely.


	11. 10 A group assembled

**Chapter 10: A group assembled**

"_We must stand together! There's no giving in. Hand in hand forever. That's when we all win." _(Nickleback, _When we stand together_)

With a strange feeling of having been completely turned inside out and put back in order again, Sora motioned for Luffy to come with him as he started walking towards where he could see Jim stand talking to the owner of another one of the stands.

"Hey, where did you guys go off to?" Jim asked as they got closer, paying the man behind the table as he got the bread he'd bought.

Sora motioned with his thumb towards the stand they'd just left.

"Luffy saw this place with a lot of weird stuff," he said.

Jim shrugged and tore off a piece of the loaf, throwing it towards Luffy, who caught it in a reflex move, shoving it gratefully into his mouth.

"Thanks, Jimbo," he mumbled through the chewing.

Sora noted the surprised look on Jim's face as he gave Sora a piece of the bread as well.

"What's the matter?" he asked in a low voice.

Jim shook his head as if to get rid of an unwelcomed thought.

"Nothing, it's just that, before now, there's been only one person who's called me that," he explained and turned to continue their walk towards the docks.

Sora thought he knew just what person that might have been.

After a moment, Sora realized that he was still holding the mystical stone in his hand and lifted it up to look at it once again while they walked. It felt… warm. Not like a stone heated by the sun, but warm like the skin of a living creature, filled with strength and life, and in that moment he knew what this was.

Luffy came up close to him and looked at the stone.

"What's the deal with that thing anyway?" he asked, his curiosity taking over his will to seem un- bothered by their recent encounter.

"It's a summon charm," Sora replied and shifted the position of the stone in his hand so that the sun's light played over the surface, making it glow. "The _Midnight fire_ – summon," he mumbled as the name popped into his mind.

"A what?" Luffy asked, not having heard the last words.

"A summon charm. You use it in a battle to get the help of the heart of the being trapped inside," Sora clarified as he let the stone slip into one of his big red pockets.

Luffy was going to ask him more about it, when he walked right into the back of someone standing in front of him.

"Ouf! Sorry," he said and stepped back, rubbing his nose.

The person he'd walked into turned around with an angry face.

"Hey, watch it!" the large creature growled at him. He looked as if made of stone and was about two times taller than Luffy, not to mention about four or five times wider over his shoulders, an appearance not made any smaller by the sleeveless bone colored shirt and the tight fitting black pants that he wore.

"Gee, I said I was sorry," Luffy replied, showing his bandaged hands in a calming gesture.

"He was just a bit distracted, talking to me, but we're off now," Sora stepped in and took a hold on Luffy's shoulder, pulling the pirate with him to continue walking around the man.

Feeling the eyes of the angered alien stare after them as they hurried away down the street, Sora tried hard to spot Jim, who'd once again continued walking without noticing the two of them being left behind.

They were interrupted by someone suddenly darting out in front of them, running past them in a panic. Sora turned and managed to see that it was a red haired girl, looking no older than thirteen.

"Hey, wait!" he called out after her, as something fell from her, hitting the ground with a soft clink and rolling off towards him. "You dropped something!" he said and bent down, picking up the jewel necklace. When he touched it, he could have sworn that he saw something light up inside of it, but when he looked again, the light was gone and he passed it off for a reflection of the sunlight.

"I've got to return it to her," Sora said to Luffy, who just nodded and went with him as he ran after her.

He could still see her somewhere in front of him, her bright red hair sticking out from the otherwise bland and mostly grey and brown shaded crowd.

Suddenly they heard an agitated roar from behind them as the reason for the girl to run away came thundering past them. It was a mountain of a being; four arms swelling with muscles and thick powerful legs carrying him fast over the stone paved street. He was big enough to make people move out of the way without any hesitation as he came towards them, leaving an open street for him to rush forward on and giving him an advantage over the small girl who could barely get forward at all in the masses of people milling all over the place.

"I'll get ya, you piece of cocky street-rat!" he brawled as he pushed forward like a steaming machine of some sort.

"We'll never get to her in time like this!" Sora heard Luffy mutter as he ran up beside him.

"Do you have a better plan?" Sora huffed back at him as he barely avoided to crash into someone who'd stopped in the middle of the street to look at the raging brute up ahead.

"Watch," was all that the pirate said as he started stretching his arms for a bit while he ran. In the next instant, those very limbs shot forward like a pair of cannon balls fired off towards the big man.

Careful not to make his hands into fists, of fear to tear up the stitches by using the hands for fighting, Luffy let his arms swing one turn around the giant and used the backwards pull of his rubber limbs to force the guy down on his back while he himself shot forward a bit before releasing him.

Sora stared in awe as he kept running.

"Wow," he managed to get through as he high jumped over the fallen and somewhat shocked brute.

"I'll take care of mister badass for a while," Luffy called after him and Sora raised his free hand up in the air showing a thumb up at the offer as he kept running after the girl.

"Hey, wait up!" he called out when he noticed that she still was trying hard to get away. "I'm not going to hurt you! You dropped your necklace!"

This made her stop in her steps and turn on her heels as she fumbled with her hands towards a place over her chest, panic clear in her face.

Slowing down to a stop as he got to her, Sora held up his hands in a friendly gesture, one of his hands still holding on to the necklace that the girl had dropped.

"I thought you might want this back," he said and offered her the jewel.

She looked at the necklace with an obvious relief creeping into her big, previously doubting, brown eyes and reached out a shivering hand to take it. As her hand came close, something happened that made her stop in her movement. The jewel started to glow in a pale pink and looked as if it came alive in his hand.

Sora stared at the jewel, a strange feeling of familiarity in the warmth it was giving off, and suddenly he knew what it was.

"It's a heart…" he mumbled in a slight disbelief and moved his eyes from the jewel in his hand towards the scared brown eyes of the red haired girl in front of him.

"How… how can you know that?" she stuttered in a weak voice.

Sora shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," he said and reached out the distance remaining between his hand and her and taking hold of her hand, he repeated the move that the saleswoman had done to him before, putting the necklace in her hand and closing her fingers around it. "After all, it tells me that it belongs to you."

She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Y-you…you can hear it too?"

Now Sora got a bit confused and raised his eyebrows as he looked at her.

"Why? Shouldn't I?"

She unfolded her hand and the small jewel started to give off a stronger light than before, one of the beams pointing straight towards Sora, almost touching his chest.

The girl's red hair flowed upwards from the outflow of energy coming from the object in her hand, giving her face an eerie framing.

"No one but me have ever heard the voice of the Heart before," she said, somehow pronouncing the word heart with what seemed like a capital 'h'. "The keeper of the Heart is the only one supposed to make it react like this," she continued and closed her hand around the jewel once more, the glow fading. "But you made it glow and it connected to you as if you were a guardian yourself."

She looked him straight in the eyes, bending her head back a bit to be able to do so, but nonetheless giving the impression of a very powerful person looking down on someone who shouldn't be in her presence.

Sora almost stepped back for a moment, but forced himself to stay put, keeping the eye contact.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice filled with doubt and a dying need to find someone she could trust in this strange new world.

Sora smiled.

"My name is Sora," he said. "I'm a protector of hearts and a fighter for the light, a wielder of the keyblade and for the moment I'm trying my best to find a way to get rid of the wave of darkness that I guess brought you here as well as it did me."

She stared at him for a while in silent disbelief, then, slowly, her features softened and she gave him a pale smile in return as she relaxed.

"So I'm not the only one then," she said, the relief obvious in her voice. "My name is Will. Will Vandom. I'm a guardian of the veil and the keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar," she continued, nodding towards the jewel in her hand. "My world was attacked by the darkness. Shadows came from out of nowhere and just completely covered every part of it. The other guardians and me, we fought them with all the power that we could summon, but it didn't help and then…" she took a deep breath as she forced herself to go on, "…then they got to my friends, one after the other. The heart protected me, but they were helpless… I woke up here, in an alley."

Sora looked back over his shoulder for a moment and then returned his eyes towards her.

"About that, what did you do to get that rhino so upset?" he said and she let out a short giggle at the nickname.

"Oh, that. He tried to tie me up and told me he would sell me off as a slave or something, but I kicked him in a place he hadn't expected me to reach and took off before he got the rope around my wrists," she said.

"Oh," Sora replied, guessing just what spot she had hit and came to think about the fact that Luffy was still doing what he could to keep the big man busy.

"I think I better turn back and help my friend get that guy calmed down," he said and turned around. "Nice to meet you!" he added over his shoulder before he took off into the crowd.

Will stood still for a moment, not knowing what she should do, and the Heart sparkled softly in her hand, sending off a stray ray of light in the direction that Sora had taken off to.

She grimaced and put the necklace back on around her neck, letting the jewel sink into the hiding place within her chest.

"Oh, I see how it is," she mumbled. "You just couldn't let me decide for myself, huh?" With a slight smile on her lips she took off after the older boy. She didn't need for the Heart to tell her that she should go with him. She had known it the moment she looked into those honest clear blue eyes, telling her she wasn't alone.

When Sora got to the place where he'd left Luffy with the four-armed enraged man, he stopped with a smile stretching out his lips at the sight that met him.

Luffy was sitting calmly on top of the guy, his legs stretched out and keeping the brute's top two arms in check, while his left arm was wrapped several lengths around the rest of the man's upper body, making the former locomotive of rage immobile and frustrated, but most of all, a bit confused as to how this all had happened.

The pirate smiled back at Sora and with his free bandaged hand he momentarily lifted his battered straw hat from his head in greeting.

"Sora, my pal, I think you missed out on all the fun, but I just couldn't restrain myself," he said, the grin on his face growing bigger.

Sora shook his head at the comment and put his hands to his hips as he tried to look grimly at him.

"How about releasing him with a warning and let all of this be over and done with? We've got things to do, you know."

Luffy winked his eye at him and in a second his stretched out limbs were back to their original shapes and sizes, letting him jump off from the man's back.

Said brute swiftly got back on his feet and gave the two of them a dark look, but nevertheless he bowed his head towards Sora, before he turned around and started walking back towards whence he'd come.

"Did you get to her?" Luffy asked as he got to him and the crowd that had watched it all started to mill about the area once more, seeing that the show was over.

Sora nodded and was about to answer him, when a voice came out from behind him.

"Yes, and I'm sticking with you two."

Turning around, Sora saw Will stand there, her dark eyes serious as she looked at them.

"Hi!" Luffy said with a smile. "Welcome to the group."

Sora raised an eyebrow looking at him from the corner of his eye.

"And since when have we ever been a 'group'?" he asked calmly.

The pirate only smiled back at him for a moment before he spoke.

"Since you told me you would help me get back my friends from those heartless thingies. You didn't think I'd let you go off doing that all on your own, huh?"

Sora felt all warm inside and smiled.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, but I would lie if I said that I'm not glad to have you come along," he said and turned back towards Will. "And how about you then?"

The red haired girl smiled secretively as she looked him in the eyes.

"If you don't mind having me come along, I assure you that I'll be able to give you quite a hand in defeating those awful things, if that's what it'll take to get my world and my friends back."

With a defeated sigh that sounded more like an act of relief than one of annoyance, Sora turned to put his arms around both of their shoulders, having to bend down slightly to do so, with Will being a bit shorter than both him and Luffy.

"Then let's head for the docks and try to find Jim, before he sends out a search team after us."

Luffy laughed and Will blushed at the sudden close contact to the boys.

"Uhm, who's Jim?" she asked as they walked down the street, Sora having let go of their shoulders, but still walking in the middle and keeping an eye on the crowd as he tried to spot his friend.

"Jim Hawkins. He's a friend I've met here. He offered to help me out in finding a way to get from this world to another. I'll have to travel to the different worlds that the heartless might target, before they get them. That way, I might be able to tell where they come from this time and find a way to stop them."

Will didn't want to prod any deeper at the subject at the moment. She felt that she might get the full explanation of things once they were off. Anyways, following these two on a journey with uncertain destinations sounded better than wandering the streets of this strange city alone while trying to figure out just what to do with herself.

A brown haired guy about the same age as Sora and Luffy came jogging towards them with a slightly worried expression in his face, the thick eyebrows pulled down over his pale blue eyes.

"There you are! I've been looking all over the docks for you! What happened?" he yelled at them, then seemed to notice Will and gave the two boys an odd look. "Who's she?"

Sora told him about the incident with the large man and once more put his arm around Will's shoulders, giving them a quick squeeze before he let go.

"Will here has decided to come with me when I go off. She says she can help me fight the heartless off, and I actually believe she can."

Jim looked at the small and quite weak looking girl with doubting eyes.

"How come?"

Sora gave Will a knowing look before he answered.

"Let's just say that I think she's way more powerful than she looks."

Jim shrugged and accepted the explanation without further asking. He'd figured out that Sora was the kind of person you just had to trust.

"I found the captain that Amelia mentioned, by the way," he continued as if they hadn't been talking about anything else. "He was glad to hear that she had recommended him, but he's apparently already been booked for another mission, so we'll have to find another solution," he said and looked at the three of them with sad eyes. "I'm sorry."

Luffy huffed with disappointment of not getting to go on a big ship that had been described to him as the 'grandest solar ship in the port', a full rigger of polished dark wood and with the finest machinery available built into it. Just looking at the ships that they could see at the dock from where they were standing made the pirate's fingers itch with a want to get on board one of them, each one bigger and more impressive than his own _Going Merry_.

Shrugging, Sora gave Jim a pat on the shoulder.

"Hey, no worries! We'll find a way," he said, the optimism not quite reaching his voice.

Will thought for a moment before she spoke up.

"Wait, you said you'll need to travel between worlds, right?"

Sora nodded, knowing that Will had more or less understood what he meant by that.

"Then I think I might have the solution," Will said, and brought forth the Heart from its hiding, causing the boys to gasp in surprise as the glowing jewel came out from her chest.

"The Heart of Kandrakar has the ability to open up portals that'll take us anywhere we want, more precisely, to other worlds. That's how the guardians of the veil have been able to keep the balance between light and darkness in all the worlds connected to Kandrakar. As far as I know, it should work here as well, seeing as how it was the Heart that took me to this place."

With a widening smile on his lips, Sora crossed his arms over his chest.

"We'll, it can't hurt to try," he said, the other two still looking a bit doubtful.

Before they got to ask Will some of their questions though, they all turned around as they heard someone screaming with fear further down the dock.

"What…?" Jim said, but Sora, Luffy and Will had all started running towards the sound, all of them having recognized the sudden feeling of cold fingers traveling up their spines only a second before that scream.

Somewhat annoyed by the fact that he was left outside of the strange bond that those three for some reason seemed to share, Jim muttered something incomprehensible as he ran after them.

Will ran right beside Sora, knowing with all her heart that this was probably going to take a transformation for her to pull off, but still hesitating as to whether or not she should do it before she knew for certain what it was all about.

Luffy flexed his arms as he ran on the other side of Sora. He cursed under his breath at the creature that had severed his hands, but decided not to let it get in the way of him doing his very best to help Sora in this first battle. He knew what the chill underneath his skin meant. He'd felt it back on his ship, just before the attack, and he'd felt it strong when he'd been fighting that darn inhuman thing that had thrown him overboard.

"It's them, right?" Luffy asked, his face set in a grim expression as he kept running.

"Heartless," Sora breathed out in a voice tainted with a hidden rage. "I'd recognize their presence anywhere."

Hearing this, Will felt a chilling sting in her heart as she remembered her last encounter with the shadows, but kept running. Somehow, she felt certain that she would make it through this time, with Sora by her side.

The people that had leisurely milled about in the street only a moment ago were now running from the docks, screaming as they fought to get away from the creatures that slowly filled the streets instead.

Sora didn't even stop before he took a jump into the air, the Kingdom key materializing in his hand with a flash of light just before he swung it at a Neo Shadow that had just risen out of the ground. The creature exploded into a dark mist at the hit and Sora went on towards the small group of ordinary Shadows that were closest to him. Spinning in the air, he felt his weapon connect and the heartless disappeared in the order they were hit.

Without showing much of their surprise at Sora's actions, Luffy and Will got themselves ready to join the fight. The pirate went in first, using an extended arm to shuffle the spread out heartless towards Sora's weapon aim.

Will saw her chance to transform and let the heart hover freely into the air as she called out for it to free her inner powers. In a burst of bright light, the thirteen-year-old girl was replaced by a taller and more mature looking version of herself, her appearance almost completely changed. As if having flicked on a switch, her body was suddenly covered by an electric pink tainted light, causing the air around her to buzz with the static.

"Let's see what they think of this," she said, gathering her energy into a small, bristling ball of light. "Quintessence!"

The ball of energy shot out as a beam of pure electricity, spreading out the impact to include all of the smaller shadows surrounding the area.

Luffy jumped away from one of the Shadows just before it burst into a cloud of black steam as one of the tongues of pink edged lighting shot down at it.

"WOW!" he breathed out at the sight and looked towards the guardian where she hovered just above the ground some way off to his right. "Nice power you've got there!" he called out to her as he ran to Sora's side, shuffling a number of heartless along with him.

Will smirked at the compliment and sent off a beam of concentrated light at one of the larger shadows as it rose behind the stretchable teen.

Sora saw the flashes of light and threw Will a thankful look over his shoulder as he went on slashing through the oncoming opponents. She had transformed and looked a bit different, but what he noticed the most was the effect that her power had on the heartless. They vanished instantly and as they came back, they were severely weakened, making them easy targets for his blade. Luffy's forceful shoves made the whole deal even easier, as the surprised creatures didn't have time to shuffle themselves out of the way before Sora came down on them with the keyblade glowing from his magically enhanced attacks.

After only a few minutes, they had cleared the area of the things and were about to cheer at the success, when a massive heartless suddenly crawled out of a pool of darkness that had opened up in the middle of the street.

It had a slender body with huge muscular arms and powerful legs covered with a tan colored pair of thread worn pants, held up at the waist by a wide leather belt with a big golden buckle. The hems of the pants were tucked into calf high black boots that matched the creature's skin, the toes ending in a sharp point bending slightly upwards.

The trio looked up at the monster as it rose to its feet, standing more than six meters tall, and looking down on them with vicious yellow orbs filled with desire to take them out. A pair of back bent antennas rose up from the top of its grim looking skull. Below the head, in the middle of its chest, there was a heart shaped hole going right through its body.

Sora squared his jaw as he looked up at the monstrous heartless and renewed his grip on the keyblade. This was going to take all he had, and he was going to need the three of them to cooperate in another manner for it to work.

"Will!" he called out to the guardian as she got closer to him. "Can you lend me some of your power for a while?"

At first, she looked a bit confused as to what he was asking her to do, then she understood and gave him a quick nod. "I'll do my best!"

Sora suddenly felt a stream of new, sparkling energy fill his body and reached for his own, making the two forces work together inside of him.

"Luffy! Try to keep the thing distracted and off our backs for as long as you can!" he then called out to the pirate, who had already started to back off a bit and circle towards the monster's side.

"Already ahead of ya'," he called back with a crooked smile on his lips.

The heartless suddenly smacked down a fist the size of an oak tree, only inches away from where Sora had been standing one second earlier. Black streams of purple edged fire spread from the impact point, only missing Luffy by an inch or two as he jumped out of the way.

The pirate went for the lowered arm, and swinging himself up onto it, he put out his tongue at the monster.

"Come and get me you big moron!" he called out to it, getting its attention enough to make it swat at him with the other hand, but Luffy was faster, moving between the arms of the giant as he used his arms as ropes to swing from one beefy upper arm to the other.

The size of the thing made it a bit slower than the ones fighting it, giving Luffy, with all his agility, a huge advantage at keeping the heartless busy trying to get rid of him, instead of attacking his friends as they moved around to the back of the gigantic enemy and surged up their power.

When Sora felt his magical force being filled to the brim, he moved quickly to get in place, right behind the heartless, where he could sense its weakness. A final transformation and a surge of power would be able to get him into place at the base of the neck.

" Get to Luffy and help him keep the thing from turning around!" he ordered Will, who gave him an uncertain look, but obeyed never the less, trusting he knew what he was doing.

"Ok," he breathed out, hardening his grip on his weapon and concentrated on the enormous power that now waited inside of him to be used. When he'd gotten back to Destiny Islands after that last war, Sora had noticed that the power the fairies had bestowed upon his clothes had somehow been stored into his own body after all its usage, and the red pocket bags he wore were a part of the old clothing that they'd given him, so some of the power should be stored in those as well. He hadn't tried it out yet, but there would always come a first time for everything.

"Here it goes!" he said under his breath and let the magic roam free.

Releasing the built up power, he felt the Kingdom Key split into two separate blades, the Oblivion key with its pitch black base and sharp teeth making the pristine white of the Oathkeeper shine even brighter in comparison. His clothes had taken on a change as well, the former mostly black clothes now having turned into being mostly red, with black and white details.

But the biggest change he could feel within himself, suddenly being filled with a power he hadn't felt he had before the transformation. The energy of the Valor drive rushed through his veins and he smiled with a pleased expression spreading in his face, his blue eyes shining as they were directed towards the spot on the enemy's neck where he knew he would have to hit if he was going to end this battle any time soon.

With a high jump powered by his increased speed, Sora took to the air, landing momentarily on the back of the giant, rushing forward into another high jump, and with his keyblades ready to strike, he somersaulted to get a bit higher up and charged both blades with the golden energy of the attack he had in mind, before letting the blades go at the peak of his jump.

The double strike raid hit the heartless in a blast of light that sent it falling forward and Sora saw Will grab a hold of Luffy in the very last moment and taking him out of the way just in time as the gigantic shadow fell to the ground in a thunderous earthquake.

Sora caught his returning blades as he was falling back down.

With a flip in the air before he landed, Sora was already building up an almost lightning fast speed as he ran towards the still not beaten enemy. With all the speed his drive form allowed him, Sora sent his keyblades off hitting the fallen heartless on all the spots where it was a little weaker than otherwise, finishing it all off with another double strike raid at the base of the neck.

It all happened within the passing of thirty seconds, Sora's movements almost too fast for his allies to see, but as he stopped moving, grabbing the returning blades as he landed a bit away from the disappearing heartless, they could see the change in his appearance.

Sora walked up to Will and Luffy, a tense expression in his face.

"Sora, that was awesome!" Luffy exclaimed and waved a bandaged left fist in the air, hardly caring about the stinging sensation as the act pulled at the still fresh stitches.

"Luffy," Sora said, his voice vibrating of something the pirate couldn't make out. "Just stand still for a moment, while I still have the power to do this," he continued and forced his keyblades together, blending the Oblivion and the Oathkeeper into one, making the Kingdom Key once more appear, as his weapon's original form. He raised the keyblade high up in the air and gathered all his remaining magic into one last spell.

"Heal!" he called out, and a green light suddenly covered Luffy at the sound of church bells.

Luffy felt the warmth of healing fill him and realized with some surprise that both his hands suddenly felt a whole lot better. He looked up at Sora as the red colors of the Valor drive left him, at the same time as the weapon in his hand dissolved into golden sparks of light vanishing into the air.

"Hey, you can actually _do_ that kind of stuff?" the pirate asked him in awe and Sora gave him a weak smile.

"Yeah, every once in a while," he said, his legs feeling like spaghetti after the recent pressure he'd put on his muscles by using every ounce of energy he'd had left in him in his intent on bringing down the powerful enemy.

Will looked at him with worried eyes.

"Are you ok?" she asked, walking up to him. "You look pretty worn out."

The keyblade wielder looked at her with tired eyes.

"I could use some rest," he admitted, feeling a bit nauseous from the lack of energy. "Thanks for the extra power, by the way. I couldn't have pulled it off without your help."

"You're welcome," the guardian said, and put an arm around his waist to support him as he slung one of his arms around her neck in a sudden need of help to keep himself upright - her increased length serving the purpose well, since she in this form was just about of the same height as him.

There came a low whistle from somewhere on their right and they turned to look, seeing Jim Hawkins walk up towards them with a stunned expression.

"You guys are just… Wow," he said in a low voice, taking in the entire scene. The docks were just about unharmed, with exception for the cracks in the ground where the last giant had fallen.

He gave Will a look of newly dawned respect, having seen the power she was capable of producing, and took Sora's other arm around his own neck.

"What do you say about returning to Montessor and my mom's inn for a nap and some food?"

"Sounds terrific," Sora mumbled, barely able to keep his eyes open, tired to his bones.

"I'm all in," Luffy added and gave Jim a hearty pat on the back as he came up from behind, having spent some time to unwrap his now completely healed hands.

Jim looked at the three of them and smiled.

"I guess the battle is, from now on, going to be a bit closer to home," he said and got a sad smile in return from Sora.

"I guess so," he said as he drifted into sleep.


	12. 11 Finding shelter

_Notes of the author: Finally I'm getting back to Kairi! Time for her to meet with her future partners! One thing though: Here I'll warn those of you who don't want any spoilers: stop reading my notes and heads on with the story and go back to the notes afterwards, cause here's a __**BIG SPOILER ALERT: **__ In this chapter I'm introducing a new character to the plot – Hauru. Now, those of you living in the English speaking part of the world might know him only by the name Howl, but I've decided to stay with the japaneese version of his name since that's how I know him and also in order to distinguish him from the original character made by Diana Wynne Jones who wrote the book inspiring studio Ghibli to make the animated movie from which I've taken my version of Hauru. Other than that, I apologize for any former or future misinterpretation or OOC-ing of the characters I use. Enjoy the reading! / Silverspegel _

**Chapter 11: Finding shelter**

"…_Close to my heart I keep/ The memory of yours…_" (_Brake up_, by me)

Kairi felt a slight panic rise in her chest when she saw Riku close the portal behind her.

She hadn't been able to see why he'd done it, but she figured that the most probable reason was also the one that she most of all feared – he'd been attacked and had decided it to be safer to close the portal until he could follow. _If_ he could follow…

Kairi bit down hard on her lower lip and forced herself to put away her doubts. Instead, she turned her attention back towards the other opening, hovering in the midst of all the floating colors and indistinct shapes that was the space in between the dark portals. Riku had once told her that traveling between these portals drained you on your light. Knowing this, Kairi walked over to the opening without further delay. No matter what happened, she would find him again, and she would save Sora. She couldn't see the destination to which Riku had opened the portal, but she trusted him to have been able to find a place that was at least a little safer than the place she had just left. Her home…

This was the third time she'd lost a home.

The first time she could barely remember at all, having been too young to have shaped any clear memories of the place where she'd lived before the heartless took over that world. Only later on she had learned that she belonged to the same world as Leon and the others and that her home had been at the city of Radiant Garden. The second time, the heartless had taken her new home at Destiny Islands away as well, but Sora had returned it to her. And now it was taken once again, and Sora with it…

Angry with herself for letting her thoughts constantly remind her of her loss, Kairi let out a low growl and clenched her fists while forcing back the gathering tears in her eyes. She would be the strong one now. This time, for all she knew, the worlds depended on her to save them, and so did Sora… and Riku.

"Let's face it Kairi," she said to herself in a reprimanding tone of voice, " that until you see the both of them in front of you again, you will have to assume that they are taken and imprisoned by the heartless. This means_ you_ will have to be the one saving _them_ this time."

She fell silent for a moment as she took a deep breath to steady herself.

"…and heroes don't cry," she added, once more directing her eyes towards the opening.

"Here goes…"

She took a last look over her shoulder, hoping for Riku to show up and prove her wrong, but as nothing happened, she turned her back to the empty void and stepped through the portal.

Hauru grimaced as his fist hit the hard wood of the door.

He had tried so many times to find the right opening, to get back to Sophie and the others, but all he had managed to achieve was yet another opening to a place he didn't know and didn't want to see. His magic was still active, despite the absence of magic in this world he was in, and it was just as strong as it had been before he got here. But this new world, with it's strange lack of native magic representatives, was somehow affecting his own magic, making the once tamed powers act just a little unpredictable. But in terms of magic, an art of preciseness and exact actions, "a little" unpredictability meant a huge difference to what the magic he used produced at his command. He had to work his way around the new routes the energy flow wanted to take by changing his directives so that each side step still would lead to the intended goal.

So far, though, he still had to work on getting even the simplest of spells to work as intended.

Practice was another problem. Being in a world without surfaced magic, Hauru had quickly figured that he would have to keep his own abilities hidden to the main crowd. Only, this world was way more crowded than he had ever thought a place able to be.

He hit the door again, feeling his skin getting somewhat sore at the rough treatment.

He refused to cry. But the burning pain in his hand as he let it strike the door once more couldn't silence the stinging and crushing sensation that was growing in his chest.

"Calcifer…" he mumbled as he remembered the last time he'd felt this pain. The first time had been when he gave up his heart to the fire demon, saving it from extinction and cursing himself with the demon's powers as it ate away at his soul and very connection to the world around him. After that, he had felt it once more when Calcifer had been close to dying, just before Sophie had revived the demon and returned the heart to Hauru.

Sophie…

Hauru had to smile through the pain as he closed his eyes and remembered her. She still had silvery grey hair instead of the brown that she should have had, but the rest of the curse that had turned her into an old woman had been lifted at the same day that Hauru had gotten his heart back. She was just as beautiful as she had been the first time he'd seen her, even more so now that she had come to know her own worth.

He had come to love her beyond her looks, her own love for him and everyone around her tearing down every wall that he had ever built between himself and the world. Together with her, he had become human again.

And then the shadows had come.

Despite changing their place of residence ever so often, Hauru had found no way to permanently escape the ghostly creatures and finally they had managed to get inside the castle. He had fought them with all that he had, Calicfer adding his strength to the magic used, but nothing had seemed to be taking any effect other than delaying the advance for a bit. Realizing they were outnumbered, Hauru had opened a new doorway while he fought the shadows back, telling Sophie to get herself and the others through the door.

But when he'd looked over his shoulder to meet Sophie's eyes, she hadn't been there and forgetting about the danger in doing so, he had turned around to find her. He'd spotted her half way up the stairs to the second floor, trying to get the shadows to back off by swinging an old umbrella in front of her, the boy and the old lady behind her further up the stairs.

She'd turned towards him and called out a warning, but it had been too late.

Hauru had felt something grab at him and had taken a step back to avoid the chilling claws, but in doing so he'd fallen down the few stairs to the open door and gone through to the world on the other side of it.

As soon as he'd gotten back up on his feet he had rushed for the door to get back, but it had closed behind him and as he opened it up again, all he had seen had been the empty back room of an abandoned shop.

Ever since then he had tried out a large number of doors, but with no luck in finding one that could take him back home. Two months had passed and he was starting to think of it as a hopeless hunt.

Giving up his tests of the doorway for the day, he decided he should pay a visit to the market down by the docks and see if he could find something useful for his business. The abandoned shop he'd stumbled into his first day in this world had proved to be on the market for renting and since Hauru had been lucky enough to carry a small pouch of gold and various jewels with him into this new place, he had been able to rent the place. For starters, he had only used it as a place to sleep in while he tried out every possible way of using the doors of the shop to get back home, but later on, as he had felt the need to move his sleeping quarters elsewhere, he had started up a small business in the shop in order to earn some money to pay for himself.

At the shop he sold his advice and products, being a man who knew quite a lot about healing herbs and other drugs, along with the everyday spells that would help even the most anti-witchery supporter believe in remedies that weren't all together scientifically provable. Luckily, his smaller spells had worked pretty flawlessly right from the start. It was the more complicated ones that got messed up.

With a deep sigh, Hauru turned the multi colored disc above his door so that the dirty white field on it was directed downwards, turned the lock on his door shut, then unlocked it again, before stepping out of his room and into the messy, noisy world of the place where he'd been living for the last few weeks.

The open corridor was a bit too crowded for his taste, but despite the constant chatter and movement around him, Hauru had found himself liking the place. It could have something to do with the soothing fumes of the herbal baths that always seeped through into the main halls, or the impeccable service he'd been receiving ever since he'd stepped inside the over decorated and luxurious entrance, but he felt calm and secure here and this had had a positive effect on his magic. All that was missing for the moment, in order to make him feel completely satisfied, was Sophie…

Another chilling pinch in his chest made him grit his teeth.

Would this nightmare never end?

The young, black haired magician swiftly made his way down the narrow wooden stairs, weaving through the crowd of strange creatures that filled the building. During his first week in this world, Hauru had been having some trouble dealing with the fact that the majority of this world's population seemed to be far from human, but as time passed he had grown a bit more used to the sight of all the different creatures around him, to the point where he didn't stop to look at every new oddity he saw.

He efficiently squeezed himself past a huge, cat-like troll of some sort with grey and white fur. The creature turned towards him with a toothy grin that reached from one end of its wide face to the other, its kind and gentle eyes following him curiously as he went by. With a soft, recognizing smile, he nodded at the girl behind the reception desk, before he went out the main entrance doors.

The streets outside the bath house were just as crowded as the building he'd just left and with yet another sigh, this time one of frustration, Hauru started to move through the mass of people, looking for an empty spot or alley where he could sneak away and get his magic together well enough to take a much less traveled route – above the heads of the crowd.

A few minutes later he walked into a narrow alleyway, looking over his shoulder and up ahead of him to make sure no one could see him, before he closed his eyes in concentration. He could feel the energy of the magic build up a welcomed breeze around him and opened his eyes, seeing the density of the air and started walking upwards on the steps that formed themselves at his will. This was one of his favorite tricks, but in this world it took more concentration than it usually did and as soon as he'd got himself high enough, he started looking for a place to land that wasn't too far away. When he found one, he started moving with precise and careful, but yet swift steps.

When he started his decent about three minutes and just as many blocks later, he suddenly felt a tear in the magical weave where he had his focus. A little shocked at first, he almost lost his grip of the spell that kept him aloft, and made a far more hasty landing than planned, stumbling to a halt on the ground as he turned in all directions in a try to make out where the interruption was. A chill down his spine told him that he had felt something familiar to this before, and he didn't like the memory it brought up to the surface.

Darkness, was all that his magical senses screamed out as the magical tear grew stronger and he turned around once more, finally pin-pointing the direction to be just about two steps away from him. Before he could back off or build up a defense, a dark line tore up the air in front of him and widened itself into an oval of swirling black and purple tainted navy blue.

Hauru cursed under his breath and took a step back, going through all his possible escape routes in his head, when suddenly something unexpected happened that made his pale blue eyes widen.

Out came, not the hordes of moving shadows that he had prepared himself to meet, but a young woman with red long hair gathered in a thick ponytail at the back of her head, dressed in an odd fashion of clothing in lilac, black and white.

She looked just as surprised as him and her dark blue eyes grew a bit bigger as she tried not to walk right into him when her feet touched the ground, resulting in a very sudden and fumbling embrace, both of them trying hard not to lose their balance while holding onto each other in a mere reflex move.

The dark portal closed just as quickly as it had opened and Hauru finally managed to get the two of them to a standstill, looking in disbelief first at the spot where the portal had been and then back at the woman in his arms. She was quite beautiful, and if he hadn't met Sophie, he would most definitely have gone for her. As it now was, all he did was smile softly at her as soon as he got back his control over his features.

The red haired young woman's cheeks were suddenly flushed in a rose color and she hastily made herself free of his arms.

"Uhm, hi, sorry about that…" she mumbled, her eyes flicking back and forth in a desperate need to find words.

"It's alright," Hauru said in his most soothing voice, took a light hold on her chin to force her to meet his eyes. "I'm Hauru. And you are…?"

"Kairi," she answered when she finally looked at him.

"Well, Kairi," Hauru said and let go of her chin, "could you explain to me why you came out of one of the shadow doors, instead of the shadows?"

Kairi blinked in surprise, looking more closely at the young man in front of her. Hauru had raven black hair reaching to his chin, with thick bangs cut straight off at the top of his brows. The pale water blue eyes were intense despite the lack of sharpness in their color, and together with his warm smile it made his features all the more eye catching.

He wore an old fashioned long sleeved shirt with wide hems gathered at his wrists with the aid of a pair of palm length bracers of tan colored leather. Around his waist he wore a wide, dark turquoise scarf as some sort of girdle, making the soot black, skin tight pants take on a slight bluish green shade, this in turn enhancing the black color of his elegant knee-high leather boots.

There was something odd about him that reminded Kairi of someone she knew, but she couldn't quite place it. What she did know though, was that she could trust him.

"A friend of mine managed to open it so that I could escape," she said, a sting of sadness in her chest as she thought of Riku.

Hauru raised an eyebrow.

"Your friend could open one of the dark doors? How?"

Kairi bit her lip, not sure what to say.

"He, well… it's a long story," she finally said and looked away. "Our world was attacked by the heartless, and my…" her voice trailed off for a moment as she forced back the tears threatening to break free from her eyes. "… a very close friend of mine, Sora, was taken. Riku and I fought them but we couldn't stop them all so he opened the portal for us to get away, but he never made it through before the portal closed. I'm… I'm the only one of us that made it here."

Hauru observed her with a concerned and serious expression. She was forcing herself to not break down from the emotions that so clearly wanted to escape her, putting up a defense against the depression that could otherwise threaten to drown her. The dark blue eyes were vivid with emotion at the mentioning of her friends and her entire body was shivering from the shock she had just gone through – or maybe it was just a sign of exhaustion? Looking closer, Hauru noticed the weary look in her eyes and the slow motions of her limbs.

"These things, you called them 'the heartless', are they the same living shadows that invaded my world as well?" he asked as he tried to gather his thoughts in order to decide what he should do about this whole situation.

Kairi nodded and described the heartless to him, trying to explain their existence in the same way as Sora had explained it to her once she'd got around to asking him about it.

"So they keep collecting others' hearts and in so doing they keep growing in number?" Hauru filled in and Kairi nodded. "But you said that you and your friend were fighting them off?" A slight tone of hopeful interest was heard in his voice.

"They are darkness, and can only be fought off with weapons made from the light within one's heart. Me, Riku and Sora, we each have that sort of weapon, making us able to fight them," Kairi explained, her eyes focusing on some distant view in her memory.

Suddenly she swayed a little and Hauru was fast to step in and take a hold of her shoulders before she could fall.

"I think you need some place to rest," he said, the concern back in his face as he looked her in the eyes.

Kairi could only nod in reply, too tired from all the fighting and from emptying all her magical preserve not too long ago. She could feel Hauru lift her up in his arms and closed her eyes, finally feeling safe enough to relax and rest her weary body and mind for a while.

"You cannot take advantage of my hospitality like this!"an old woman's voice ranted, the raspy tunes increasing in volume as she went on. "Who is that girl? I don't want anything to do with any shabby street victims that my guests decide to drag along…"

"Hush, madam. She's not one of the drugged alley girls. She's a friend of mine who's been through a lot, and now she needs some place to rest and recover from it all. I assure you that I will pay for the extra cost this is, so do not worry," a soft male voice interrupted the woman, and Kairi could vaguely remember it belonging to a man named Hauru.

Her entire body felt numb and heavy as led. She tried to move, but gave up the idea as pain shot through her sore muscles. Slowly and with the use of her entire remaining strength, she managed to open her eyes and moved them towards the sound of voices, trying to see through the haze of newly broken sleep.

Hauru was standing by a door, talking to a very short woman with a very, very large head.

"My dear sir, master Hauru," the strangely looking old woman said, her voice now terribly soft and oily, a touch of false flatter being heard in it as she forced a smile onto the dry lips. "I am most sorry that I ever suspected you to be one of such low taste," she continued, obviously not feeling all that sorry for the mistake as she said she did, "but I have had some bad experiences since I started my business here and I have to make sure…"

"No harm done, my dear madam," Hauru interrupted her, his voice just as soft as before. "I know all too well of the dangers in letting the wrong people pass through your door."

The old woman seemed pleased with this and after exchanging a few words with him concerning the pay for the room and food, she left them and Hauru closed the door.

As he did so, Kairi noticed a multi colored disc that was placed at the top left corner of the door frame. It had stripes of different colors going out from the center like the spokes of a bike wheel. At the moment, a dirty white stripe was pointing downwards, marked by a black iron arrowhead that stuck out from the wall.

When he turned to look at her, he smiled, relief showing in his eyes.

"Ah, you're finally awake!" he said and came to sit on her bedside. "How are you feeling? You've been sleeping ever since we met yesterday."

Kairi wrinkled her forehead in thought as she tried to remember what had happened. It didn't take too long for her memory to come back though, and as it did, she wished for it to have stayed away for just a little while longer. The image of Sora's sad eyes as he made the decision to let go of her hand in order to save her, and then how he slipped away into the dark pool, was something she didn't want to remember. She wanted her latest experience to have been nothing but a bad dream, but no matter how hard she tried to believe so, she knew it wasn't, because she was here with Hauru, and not back at Destiny Islands with Sora.

She forced a smile onto her lips.

"I'm still tired, but I'll be fine soon, I guess," she said, her voice sounding strange and weak to her.

She could see in his kind eyes that he didn't buy her lie, but he didn't say anything about it, instead he reached for a round, jade green tea pot and a large mug of the same color that was standing on a small coffee table at the side of her bed.

"If you can get yourself to sit up, I bet you that some of my own home made tea will make you feel a whole lot more refreshed in only a few minutes," he said and Kairi smiled with gratitude, the offer sounding most welcome in her ears. She struggled to get up and, with a little help from Hauru's steady hands, she finally sat up and could take a sip from the mug she received.

The tea had a wonderful taste that made her think of the Islands. It tasted of mint and something that could only be described as summer sun. The brew warmed her up from her mouth and into her every limb in an instant and even though she knew better, she was almost certain that what Hauru had given her was actually a High Potion.

"Well?" he said after she had taken her first sip. "What do you think of it?"

Kairi's eyes beamed at him, full of her regained energy.

"It's amazing! What's in it?"

Hauru smiled back and shook his head.

"Now that's a secret," he said and got up from the bed.

"Come on!" Kairi objected and took another sip of the tea, all weariness gone.

"It's true," Hauru responded and started to pour the rest of the brew in the pot into four small glass bottles, which he corked and put down into a large bag standing by the door. "And I never tell my secrets to anyone."

"Magician's honor, right?" Kairi added with a snort.

Hauru looked at her with wide eyes of surprise.

"How did you…"

Kairi blinked. Suddenly she remembered what it was about him that made him seem familiar; he had magic. It was like a field of static energy embracing him, giving her a feeling similar to that which she had felt around Donald.

"I just know. I've got my own magic as well, but I'm not all that good at using it yet," she replied quickly and swung her legs over the side of the bed, testing their strength a bit before she got up and took a look around the somewhat luxurious room, more or less ignoring the still surprised look on Hauru's face.

The walls of the room were a pale pink, a dark cherry tree wood panel stretching along the lower half of them on all sides. Large paintings hang on the wall with even spaces, all together five paintings, all of them depicting long legged white and black birds with red spots over the eyes, Kairi couldn't recognize the bird, but the paintings were kind of pretty, simple lines creating an illusion of a whole despite a lack of coverage in between the lines. The bed in which she had been placed was low and wide, with large bed posts of wood the same color as the panels and the linen were made of a silk like material in a deep pink shade, save the sheet, that was an ivory black.

The room also held a small kitchen area, cut off from the rest of the room by a high bar table of dark wood and close by was a dark wood door that she figured lead to the bathroom.

"Uhm, where is this place?" Kairi asked after a moment of silent observation.

Hauru, still wondering over Kairi's mystical power that he for some reason couldn't sense, stood up from the hunched down position he had been in since he'd put down the bottles in his bag.

"Right, you wouldn't know that, now, would you," he said and put the gentle smile back onto his face. "When you fell asleep like that, I took you here to let you get some rest. This is a bath house, serving as a sort of hotel offering healthy herbal baths to its customers. The old woman who were here earlier, Youbaba, is the owner of this establishment. She's a real hag, if you ask me, but deep inside her wrinkly self I know she's got a good heart. She just has some trouble showing it."

Kairi had to smile at the comment.

"Well, I don't know all that much about her, but she didn't sound too friendly to me," she said in thought as she went over to the large spruced window and took a look outside. "But what world is this? It's not your home; that much I can tell."

Once again Hauru was a bit surprised by the ease with which she talked about such things as magic and different worlds, as if she wasn't surprised at all.

" Hrm, no, my world is a bit different from this," he said and hurried to go on, not wanting to think too much about the fate of his loved ones. "I've been stranded here for about two months now and I've learned that this city of sorts is only a small part of this world. During the night time you can see a planet nearby; that's Montessor, and this place hovering in space, is the Montessor Space Port. Here solar sail ships dock on their way to other locations."

Kairi hummed at the information as she took in the sight outside the window. The streets were crowded with a mass of varying creatures, only a few times she thought she could spot what she figured to be a human among the other species that mixed and mingled about three floors below her.

"This is a perfect place for hiding," she mumbled, forgetful of Hauru, who had walked up to stand behind her.

"Hiding from what? The heartless?" he asked and Kairi was snapped out of her thoughts, turning to face him, just a little embarrassed at having spoken the words out loud.

"Yeah, well, if you want to hide from them, being in a world like this, where a lot of different worlds are connected already, makes it a bit easier. They can't really pick you out from the mass if there are no standards to stick out from."

Hauru nodded in understanding and Kairi realized that she had met an ally in her fight, knowing deep down inside of her heart that for some reason, she was meant to be here with him at this moment. She looked around the room once more, when her eyes stopped at the colorful disc above the entrance door.

"Hauru, what is that disc doing there?" she asked and nodded towards the door.

Hauru's eyebrows were slightly raised for a moment, as he realized what she meant - then a new expression crept across his face, an expression of dawning hope.

"That, my dear friend," he said," is what I use to make this door open up to worlds other than this."


	13. 12 Threads of destiny

**C****hapter 12: Threads of destiny**

"_We shall with swords weave the fabric of victory_" (The song of the valkyries, _Story of Njal_)

Astrid bit down her teeth around the growl and hit her fist hard into the nearest wall. The hit left a shallow dent in the soft stone of the building, and a stinging, throbbing pain in her knuckles, but she ignored it. She had felt worse. She was so angry with herself at the moment that she would probably think like that about any kind of wound that she got, be it a chopped off limb or a knife in her waist. She had lost them!

Putting a stray strand of blond hair back behind her ear, she looked out into the crowd again. But she couldn't see them anymore and she couldn't feel _him_ either. She had been so _close_!

Absentmindedly she bit her lip and fumbled with her hands behind her head to get the loose strand of hair back into the thick braid. Once that was done, she adjusted the thin, braided leather bandana around her head, placing it so that it kept her bangs lifted a bit from the skin of her forehead, thus getting the hair a bit further away from her eyes. With an annoyed notion she added to her to-do-list that she would soon have to find a way to get her hair cut. She couldn't do it herself, unless she wanted to walk around with a very uneven haircut.

Tightening her leather armguards she looked once more at the mass of moving creatures and some of the sharpness in her watchful eyes went away to be replaced by a softer touch as her anger gave way to the ever present despair and hopelessness that she did her best to force aside.

"So close…" she breathed out with a shivering voice.

She had felt the vibrating presence of the dragon only a few steps away from her, but as she had spun around with the happy surprise painted in her smiling face, she hadn't seen him, only a young man in odd clothes and an even more odd hairdo, standing about half a head taller than herself. He had been walking next to another guy, a skinny, black haired person with a scar right below his left eye, wearing a straw hat on his head.

Despite this, she still felt the dragon's presence clearly and when she looked closer at the first guy, she spotted a small yellow stone of some kind in his hand. She knew that color… It was the same as his eyes! Those soulful and piercing eyes that so many times had looked down at her and made her feel small and weak and yet, so much stronger than ever before. The first dragon she had ever _really_ looked at.

Astrid had wanted to call out to the boy to tell her where he had found that stone and why he had it, had wanted to ask him a lot of things, but she hadn't been able to get a single word across her lips. And then the two of them had walked right into some large fellow, scrambled themselves away quickly and with a panic rising in her at the thought of losing sight of the boy with the stone, she had ran after them. She had been nearly run over by a small red haired girl short after that, and that short second of lost focus had cost her the prey. She had completely lost them and now she had been running up and down the street a number of times without spotting them.

The young viking cursed the ever moving crowd that made it close to impossible for her to get a decent view of the area. She hated this place! It had been three weeks or so since she had got here, and she still hated it.

Berk had been a small and crowded place, sure. Even more so after the dragons moved in more permanently, but it had been HOME,_ her _home. And everyone there had been family to her, or friends of the family, or friends of her friends. She had known every rock and tree of the islands, had sailed the waters around them and even flown the skies above them on the backs of dragons. She had loved it there, she had loved her life, she had _loved_…

She shook her head to get rid of the memories. She knew they only made her sad and if she gave in to the despair again, she _knew_ that she would lose herself and what use would she be to all of them then? What could she possibly do that was of any use to anyone, gods or friends, if she was a crying ball of cowardness? She was a _viking_, by the name of Odin!

Astrid straightened her back and put the grim expression back on her face, a hand on the hilt of her sheathed broad sword and the elbow of her other arm slightly reaching back to touch the edge of the metal enforced, circular wood shield she had slung onto her back. She didn't like the sword, she was much more of an axe person, but it had been the weapon closest at hand when the attack had come, and she wasn't one to be picky when it came to getting herself into the battle.

The shadows had come at nightfall. The village had just about gone to sleep and the night fires had been lit to warn ships of the shores. Some men and women had still been up, keeping watch together with a few dragons, just to make sure.

Hiccup had just gotten back from the smithy after working on an improvement of the dragon saddle for Needlesharp, her own dragon. Toothless had been a bit fidgety all day, and had refused to leave his human friend alone for as much as a second. He had followed him to the door, the black nose almost touching the fur vest Hiccup wore. Astrid and Hiccup alike had been a bit worried by this, but they hadn't been able to figure out what it was that made the dragon act that way.

They had barely been able to close the door to the great hall and keep the dragon out, and that's when it had happened.

The alarms of the horns by the beach had sounded loud and clear in the silence of the night, and the two of them had, along with the others gathered in the hall for supper, picked up their weapons and rushed out the door they had just closed. Toothless had been eager to get up in the air and Hiccup had barely been able to get up in the saddle before they had taken off. Astrid, still on the ground, picked up the first weapon she found (a double edged, heavy sword) and grabbed a shield as she went by the smithy, running towards the sound of the alarm together with the rest of the inhabitants of the island.

Say what you want about vikings, but fear wasn't a word they knew a lot about.

And yet, once they had spotted their enemy, a large part of them had stopped in their steps, unsure of what to do. The shadows moved fast and twitching, avoiding every weapon swung at them, dodging the flames of the fire-breathing dragons and slipping right through nets. Nothing seemed to stop them, and their glowing eyes were like lightning bugs or balls of ember hovering closer to them from the dark water. Then some of them had started to appear right out of the ground that the berkers walked on, and this had startled even some of the rougher ones.

It was like a nightmare. Someone had been jumped at and when the little black creature had reached into his chest, the man had screamed with all the might of his lungs, then suddenly stopped as the creature pulled out something glowing brightly and the man had dissolved into nothing.

That's when the panic had started to break free in the group and one of the children had called out that it was the Ragnarök, the end of the world, and that the shadows were the hordes of the underworld, sent out by Hel. Even the volva had been looking worried.

Astrid shuddered. She could still feel the eerie coldness in the air around the things and hear the screams of those who were victims to the creatures.

The only thing that had somewhat worked against the shadows, had been a ball of white hot purple edged fire that with a precise aim had hit a large group of them from above. Toothless had decimated the heads of the horde from several hundred, into just a few less than one hundred within a few minutes, and the cheers of the vikings had filled the night as the fight went on. The night fury had been invisible against the night sky, his scales' color the perfect camouflage, and his aim never failed. Aided by Hiccup's steering, the dragon was the perfect weapon and a lethal enemy to just about anyone at nighttime.

Until the sky got enemies as well, that was.

The shadows in the sky had attacked out of nowhere, copying the attacks of Toothless and striking down on all the dragons that were present. Whatever had happened up in the sky, Astrid had heard Hiccup cry out his dragon's name with a heartfelt pain, somewhere above her head, and when she had turned to look at the sky, she had only been able to see a short glimpse of the shining metal on Hiccup's armor, falling towards the ground in a way too high speed.

Fearing the worst, Astrid had fought fiercely through the masses of oncoming shadows, calling out for Hiccup as she went, edging closer to the point where she thought they should have landed. When she got there, she had found the dragon lying on his side on the ground, the tracks of his crash dive clearly visible even in the flickering fire light.

Hiccup had been lying a bit away, unconscious, but breathing. He had lost the prosthesis for his left leg, but otherwise he had seemed to be ok and she had sent a thankful prayer towards Freya and the valkyries for keeping him safe.

But the dragon…

Toothless had been hit by one of the shadow dragons' fires, his entire left side looking like an open wound and he was breathing very slowly as Astrid had went over to check on him. The pain had been obvious in his big yellow eyes and she had broken into tears when she'd seen the damage. The dragon had tried to move; constantly swinging his head in a try to see his thrown off rider and Astrid, her heart almost breaking at the sight, had quickly gone to get Hiccup into his view. Only then had he calmed down, putting his head in the unconscious young man's lap, humming with sadness and comfort.

When the shadows had finally caught their scent, or whatever it was that they went on, Astrid had got to her feet, pulled her sword anew and stormed the enemies with a burning rage rising in her chest, the tears streaming from her eyes and a scream worthy of Thor himself leaving her throat. She had fought like a valkyrie, not caring about the pain, just slashing down her enemies with an empty mind, blood burning in her veins and fueling her fury.

Toothless had growled at the creatures, spit small balls of fire at them and hugged Hiccup's body close to his chest in a protective gesture usually seen only with a mother and her young. Astrid had fought beside the dragon, kept the shadows off his back and hoped for someone to help them, to get them out of this nightmare. Then, Toothless had suddenly got back onto his feet, shaking and unstable, but with his eyes focused.

Astrid had felt a cold shiver down her spine, and had turned to look in the same direction as the dragon. There, only a few steps away, there had been an opening in the sky, a black swirling hole that grew a little bigger as she looked at it.

Toothless had grabbed Hiccup by the collar of his shirt, swooped away some of the shadows with his tail and limped closer to the opening. Astrid had hurried to their side and had managed to get Hiccup up onto the dragon's back to make the escape easier. The night fury had more or less rushed towards the opening as if he knew it was their only way out, and as Astrid had jumped through the dark hole, holding on to the harness on the dragon, she had felt a brief moment of relief at getting away.

But she had lost the grip on the harness and she had heard Toothless cry out for her as the darkness had enclosed them.

She had landed here, in this strange world far away from anything looking like something she could even vaguely recognize. For the first few days she had done nothing but stare with unseeing eyes into the air, until a passing stranger had made her snap out of the shock by throwing down a coin in front of her, the golden piece landing with a clang against one of the metal bolts of her shield that was lying on the ground.

Astrid shook her head once more.

She had been doing it again.

Remembering…

She had almost learned how to be herself again, stealing to get food for a few days, until someone asked for her help to get a message to the ships by the docks. Now she had a place to sleep, a piece of half decent food once a day and a job as a deliverer, messenger and shop guard and she had started to build up a reputation on the market, making her boss proud and pleased.

She had almost become her old self again, wounded and still missing her lost loved ones, but still standing strong and fighting to get back into the everyday life, even if it was the everyday life of as strange a place as the Montessor Space Port. She thought of it as a second life, a transit world for those who waited to get their place in the afterlife. But then all of her carefully built up strength and hard won security had been crushed in one instant, only because she had felt the presence of the night fury. She _knew_ it had been Toothless. She knew it with such a certainty that it almost felt silly. And she also knew that the stone in that guy's hand had had something to do with it.

And she had lost him.

Frustrated she hit the wall once more, this time drawing blood on her sore knuckle skin and she bit down harder on her lip.

Looking at her hand she realized that she would have to see to that wound before it got infected, or she would be having a hard time using her weapon for about a week or so.

Sighing deeply, she turned and walked towards the medicine shop two blocks away.

She knew there were an apothecary just two houses away from where she was, and she had the hospital almost right in front of her, but she preferred the products of the small shop. She had discovered it about a week ago when her employer had made her go there to get something for his cough.

The shop owner was a strange young man with the blackest hair she had ever seen and eyes the pale blue of a forget-me-not. For some reason she liked the man, even though she couldn't stand his haughty manners or understand even one word of what he said when he had started telling her of the ingredients of the brew she was there to get. But she had returned later on with a broken finger and he had in some miraculous way cured it in a day with a smelly salve and a bandage.

He had magic, she just knew it. And this made him powerful. Where she came from, magic belonged to the ones chosen by the gods to carry out their messages to the world of men. Usually this person, the volva, was a woman, but every once in a while the assignment came upon a man and this made Astrid more or less certain that if she kept close to the medicine shop owner, she would sooner or later get a message from the gods to lead her on her way.

At least, if nothing else came out of it, she had something that made her feel a little bit more at home in this strange world. She raised her unharmed hand and knocked on the door of the shop, waiting for the owner to call her inside, knowing he kept the door locked if he was in the back of the shop.

It took a moment, then she heard the lock click and the door swung open. She stepped inside and immediately spotted the strange red haired girl standing by one of the shelves close to the counter.

"Good day, Astrid," Hauru welcomed her and closed the door behind her. "How can I help you today?"

Astrid showed him her knuckles and with a knowing humming he looked at the torn skin before he went to one of his shelves, took down a green glass bottle and grabbed a piece of cotton from a box on a table below the shelf before he returned to her.

While the man worked on cleaning her wound, Astrid observed the other woman closely, getting the strange feeling of having seen her before, or someone like her. It had something to do with her style of clothing and the way the air seemed to be just a little bit thicker around her…

Suddenly she turned to meet Astrid's eyes and, embarrassed for having been caught staring, Astrid turned her attention to what Hauru was doing.

"Who's she?" she asked him with an indifferent voice.

Hauru looked up from the bandage he was placing around her hand and raised his eyebrows.

"Who? Oh, Kairi?" he said, apparently not prepared for the question.

"It's ok, Hauru," the red haired said from behind him and Astrid raised her eyes once more to look at her. "As he said, my name is Kairi. I'm new here and Hauru was kind enough to help me get settled."

Astrid observed her with a doubtful look in her eyes.

"So, where are you from then?" she asked, her voice as chilly as she could make it.

Kairi stared back at her with surprise obvious in her kind eyes. It was clear that she wasn't used to that kind of response to her friendly approach. Astrid almost smiled at the thought and enjoyed the game she played.

"My home…" Kairi began, as a sudden sorrow entered the blue eyes. "My home doesn't exist anymore."

This surprised Astrid though and she felt a sting of guilt at having forced the other girl to remember something that was obviously painful to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the viking said and looked at Hauru.

"You're not a very sensitive one, are you?" the magician said with a grunt and stood up straight after having finished the bandaging.

Astrid closed her mouth around the insulting words that rose up in defense and swallowed her wounded pride. This was no time to be making friends turn into enemies.

"I've lost my home too," she said, not wanting to look at the other girl. "We were attacked by some shadow demons. Me and my… my friends managed to get through a dark opening, but they were badly hurt and we lost each other along the way and I landed here alone."

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to meet Kairi's dark blue eyes, filled with compassion as they held on to hers.

"I think I know how you feel," she said and that was all that was needed.

Astrid felt the sudden spread of warmth inside of her and in that moment she knew she had met a friend. More than so, she felt something fall into place inside of her, a piece of her own life-thread that was finally completing the thread that she hadn't known was incomplete until now. This was a message from the norns. Urd was calling and she was going to take the call to her heart.

The viking gave Kairi a crooked grin.

"You want to kick those demons' asses as well, huh?"

Kairi blinked, then smiled wide and Hauru let hear a slight chuckle from behind her.

"You could say that," Kairi said.

"I'm in," Astrid replied and took a hold of her hand, giving it a firm shake to close the deal. "Now, just how much do you know about those demons?"


	14. 13 Not alone

**Chapter 13: Not alone**

"_What's that sound? My destiny is bound for changes, lost and found."_ (E-Type, _Life)_

* * *

><p>Riku stumbled through the portal, his legs giving in to exhaustion the very moment he landed on solid ground. He sank down onto his knees, closing his eyes for a moment and focused on breathing and staying awake despite being tired beyond what was bearable.<p>

He had made it, but it had been a very close call. Whatever that horrible thing was, it had been strong and Riku had trouble believing that he had managed to get free of its grip simply by surprising it. Too bad that element of surprise wasn't going to work all too well in the future, seeing as the thing most certainly would remember such an ability as his.

Grimacing from the ache in his muscles, Riku opened his eyes to see where he had landed, a bit uncertain of it since he couldn't hear the sounds he had expected, nor sense the atmosphere of the world he had aimed for.

When his eyes got used to the light, his heart sank in his chest.

This wasn't Disney Castle, not by any means close to being it. He was sitting in a narrow alley leading out to a wide square or merchant street, with various shops and sales stands being visible in between the passersby. The sunlight, bright and unusually clear, flowed over the innumerous amount of people that Riku could see walk by, each and every one of them looking like they came from a completely different world than the one before him or her.

Riku blinked in disbelief and almost felt like crying. He had been so certain that he had opened the portal to the most secure place he knew, a place that would have been ideal for him and Kairi to get help. Instead, he had ended up in a place he didn't know anything about, and to top it off, he couldn't see Kairi anywhere, even though it had been no more than ten, perhaps fifteen minutes between her departure from the island and his own.

Had she even got to the same place as him?

The thought gnawed at him, his worry for his friend increasing as he thought of all the possible openings he could have made without intending to do so, and he closed his eyes, gritting his teeth as he tried not to think about what could have happened. For a weak moment, he felt overwhelmed by the weight of the angst that came over him in company with this worry, but he managed to stop himself in time.

By breathing slowly in and out through his nose, he forced himself to take control over the emotions running amok inside his mind and after a while, he opened his eyes again. Looking at the stone buildings on both sides of him, Riku decided that he couldn't stay here and tried to get to his feet. With his legs feeling no stronger than over boiled carrots, Riku almost instantly fell back down on the ground.

He was so tired! His entire body ached from having been pushed beyond its limits both physically and magically. The portals had been his only way out, but they had cost him what little strength he had had left in him. With a hissed out curse from behind his clenched teeth, Riku tried to stand once more, using one of the cold walls for support and focusing all his willpower on completing this one task. He stood, but he was shivering all over from the effort and all that he could think of was to lie down and just sleep.

Forcing the thought out of his head he started to walk out of the alley. He had made it through the darkness with nothing but a small speck of light guiding him, he had fought monsters far greater than that hissing thing back on the island, and therefore he didn't want to believe he was defeated now. All he had to do was to find somewhere safer where he could rest, just for a moment, and then he would start searching for Kairi.

But despite his stubbornness, he didn't come far, before his body made the decision that he really couldn't go any further without rest and just as he left the shadows of the alley, his knees gave in under him and he fell into the soft darkness of a very welcomed sleep.

Riku slowly came back to his senses and realized that something was different from when he'd fallen asleep. He was lying on something soft and had what he guessed was a warm and soft comforter over his body, and a pillow under his head.

His first thought was that he was back home in his own bed.

_It was just a dream! A bad dream, but still just a dream! _he thought and felt a smile of relief place itself on his lips.

But in the next moment this feeling left him so fast it almost felt like getting a slap in the face.

"Hey, are you awake?" a young woman's voice was heard asking him from somewhere on his left.

Riku took a deep breath as he let the reality of what had happened sink in, before he slowly opened his eyes. He was lying in a medium sized bed with light wood bedposts, placed along one of the walls of a small room containing two more beds. The white walls and light wood floor and ceiling were given color with the aid of small curtains with a square pattern made of pale blue stripes and a carpet on the floor that were of just about the same color, only a shade darker.

With a snort and a grimace of dislike at what he saw, Riku was ready to just close his eyes again and hope to wake up in his own bed. He badly wished for the recent happenings to have been just a dream.

"I'm sorry that this isn't the Ritz or something, but you should really be thankful that Don got to you before any of the brutes at the docks did!" the young woman said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

Riku reopened his eyes and tried to focus on finding the one who had been speaking to him. Sitting on a three legged stool by the window on the opposite wall, was a girl looking about his age. She had thick, brown curly hair reaching just below her shoulders, intense brown eyes and a small wrinkle between her eyebrows, telling him just how annoyed she was at his reaction.

Her clothes were a bit odd in a way. She wore a knee-long skirt in a dark grey wooly material, a former white shirt and a vest in the same material as the skirt and over it all she had a black cloak over her shoulders. The loose knotted tie around her neck, with red and golden yellow stripes, was the only colorful attribute to it all and, together with the knee-high, not so white, socks and the low black leather shoes it enhanced the image of the clothes being a uniform rather than her ordinary choice of clothing. The clothes were torn and showed a big need of being mended and washed, but the girl herself looked rather cleaned up and well rested, a combination Riku couldn't quite make reasonable.

"Uhm, where am I?" Riku finally managed to ask, slowly moving himself into a sitting position. His muscles were aching all over and to sit was way harder than he'd expected, but he kept himself upright nonetheless.

With a snort the girl closed the book she had been reading, put it on the nearby window sill and turned her full attention to him.

"I believe the correct phrase you're looking for, is ' I'm sorry for being so rude miss and could you please tell me where I am?'," she said, her brown eyes drilling their way into his own turquoise.

Riku felt his cheeks get warm with indignation at the girl's manner of telling him off for something that was hardly to consider as being rude, but he swallowed the reply he had on his lips and chose to take another instead.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little confused at the moment," he said and made a gesture at their surroundings. "This wasn't where I was last time I checked, and as much as I am grateful for it, it also is quite a shock not to recognize the place I wake up in. So, let me rephrase my question; could you please tell me where I am?"

His hostess didn't seem all too pleased with this answer, but she gave him a short nod in recognition anyway.

"That will do, I guess," she said, her voice a little softer now. "You're at the Ratatouille Inn. We've been staying here for the last couple of weeks and we thought it best to bring you here as well. Changing rooms to get one more bed wasn't too hard and the innkeeper is kind enough to let us pay the same price as before, seeing as we are his only long time residents."

Riku looked down on his hands and tried to make the information sound important in his head, but he couldn't find anything to hang his memory on and he had trouble following her.

"Wait, you keep saying 'we', and no offence, but I don't know who you are, let alone who it is that you're talking about," Riku interrupted her and returned his eyes to hers. "I'll start. My name is Riku and I'm very thankful for all the help that you have given me, even if it's only to give me a safe place to rest. I'm in debt to you and therefore I wish to know who it is that I have to thank for it all."

The girl blinked, a bit surprised it seemed, to this sudden proof of ability to be polite.

"Hermione Granger," she said in a low voice and made an inclination with her head towards the door. "But the one you really should thank is Donnie. He found you and decided to carry you here. All I did was to see to some of your wounds. He's downstairs right now, getting some food for us," she explained and suddenly a smile lit up her face, making her previously so stern look disappear completely, in favor for a much more beautiful and relaxed expression. "They've got the greatest food here; just wait until you've tasted it! It's like being a child again and tasting chocolate for the first time!"

This sudden change in Hermione made Riku raise his eyebrows. She reminded him of Kairi in a way. The thought sent a sting through his chest and he winced. When he looked up, he found Hermione standing by his bedside, a concerned expression in her eyes.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost or something," she said, worry in her voice.

Up close Riku realized she was younger than he had first thought her to be. She had to be at least two years younger than Kairi and Sora, not older than sixteen. Her previously stern expression had made her look older.

He forced a weak smile onto his face.

"Nah, I'm ok. I just came to think of my friends, they…" he tried to find a good explanation, but the harder he tried, the more it hurt as his memory of what had happened replayed itself in his head.

Hermione put a hand on his shoulder and sat herself down on the bedside, right beside his knees, with a serious look in her eyes.

"So Donnie was right then, you're like us," she said and Riku had to think for a moment before he understood what she meant by this. "You've lost your world too, right?"

Riku nodded, relieved that he hadn't been forced to make up something in order to keep the existence of other worlds a secret to her, since she already knew about it. Then he realized what this meant and for the first time he thought about the fact that the heartless most probably had started to take over other worlds as well as his own.

"Well, if it's of any comfort, you're not alone," Hermione said, a short glimpse of pain passing in her eyes as she turned her face away. "I lost contact with my friends while we tried to get away, so I don't know if they're ok or if they didn't make it…"

She had been so lost in her own feelings of guilt during her first weeks in this world and if it hadn't been for Donnie, she didn't know what she would have done or if she would even have survived.

It had all happened so fast.

The shadows had come crawling across the floor, giving off a chilling feeling similar to that of the dementors and every one of the students and teachers had tried every magical spell they knew in order to keep them off themselves, but one after another they had all fallen victims to the oncoming masses of living darkness. She had for a moment even found herself fighting back to back with Malfoy, and the Slytherin student hadn't even bothered to look disgusted at her presence as he'd discovered who it was that kept his back clear.

Ron had luckily enough come to her rescue and had taken over Malfoy's place as the platinum blond boy had ran to the aid of one of his house mates. And then Harry had managed to get to them as well.

They had tried all they knew on the shadows, but amazingly enough it had been the simplest of their spells that had proven to have the best effect. Expelliarmus had, for example, been the most efficient of her own spells, and therefore the only one she used once she'd realized this. But it hadn't killed the creatures, only forcefully pushed them away so that she had a good and wide area in front of her that was kept clear of the things. The boys had copied her actions and thanks to this, they managed to get out of the school building, getting a better view of their surroundings and getting rid of the shadows that came through the walls.

They had aimed for Hagrid's cabin, but hadn't made it further than the school yard before that other thing had showed up. At first all three of them had thought it was a dementor and Harry had been the fastest to summon his patronus. The protector had surprised the thing, but not enough to make it run or lose sight of them.

As they'd tried to get past it, the creature had grabbed Harry by his shirt collar and had lifted him up in the air, hissing like a snake as it asked him to give it a shard of some sort. Ron had managed to distract the creature by ramming into it from the side and Hermione had sent off an expelliarmus spell straight into its midsection from behind. This had made it release Harry and all three of them had rushed out the gates, running for their lives as the thing came after them.

More shadows had risen against them as they got further away from the school and they shortly found themselves surrounded once more with no escape route in sight. That was when she'd come to think of a transportation spell she'd read about only three days before when searching through a spell book in the library. It was their only shot and despite knowing better than to try on a new spell for the first time without neither practice nor a tutor to keep her safe, and in a stressed situation as this, she had put her entire being into making the spell work then and there for the three of them.

It had worked, only she hadn't managed to get the boys to come with her all the way through. Somewhere on the way between two worlds, she had lost them and had fallen into this world screaming their names.

Hermione blamed herself for not grounding the spell enough, for losing them. She knew that it could have been the magical barriers at Hogwarts that had prevented the spell from working properly, but she still should have thought about that possibility before trying it. And now, in this boy that she barely knew, she saw the pain she felt herself.

"I think I know how you feel," Riku said after a moment of silence. "I lost one of my friends, Sora, to the shadows and when another of my friends, Kairi, and I, tried to get away, we got separated, mostly because of me. I don't even know if she's here on this world or if she ended up somewhere else completely."

Hermione looked at him with a shine of understanding in her eyes and Riku felt something click into place. This was someone he was meant to meet, someone who was connected to him in some way. It felt odd, and yet, it made him just a little bit relieved at the same time, because this meant that he wouldn't be alone in his search this time. Whatever help this girl could give him, destiny had made it so that they could meet and he wasn't one to object.

With a strange feeling of a connection deeper than that of the moment, Hermione couldn't help staring into the older boy's strangely turquoise eyes. She couldn't quite figure out what it was that made her feel so close to this stranger, but for some reason she _knew_ that she wouldn't leave him. It was as if she had been friends with him for just as long as she had been friends with Harry and Ron and that this meeting was somehow meant to have happened, sooner or later. Before any of them could put words to this sudden moment of bonding, there came a knock at the door and both of them turned their eyes that way.

"Hermione, could you open the door? My hands are full," came a muffled teen voice from the other side of the door and Hermione rushed to her feet, wanting to get some space between herself and the inexplicable feelings that she had felt when she'd looked into Riku's eyes.

"I'm on my way, Donnie!" she called out and took three wide strides towards the door, pulling it open with a fast jerk at the handle.

"Hey, it's not that urgent," the newcomer said with a startled tune to his voice.

Riku swung his legs over the bedside and finding his shoes, he put them back on his feet.

"So what's today's treat?" Hermione asked.

"Well, this place doesn't do pizza, but this soup is supposed to be the best they have, so we'll have to make do with it, I guess," Donnie said with a slight touch of disappointment to his voice now and entered the room.

Riku looked up from his shoes just in time to see the mentioned bowls of soup being put down on the small table that was placed by the window, right beside the stool where Hermione had been sitting when Riku first woke up.

Now, Riku didn't know what he had expected, but he was still a bit surprised as he saw the one Hermione had called Donnie, turn around to face him. The guy proved to be what looked like an upright walking turtle, arms and legs looking quite human, apart from the number of fingers and toes. Around his wrists he wore dark brown leather wrist warmers of some sort, and on knees and elbows he had pads of the same color and material. It all matched the wide belt he'd tied around his midsection, holding up a long wooden staff in a small sheath on his back shell. Over his surprisingly human and friendly eyes, he wore a purple eye mask bandana.

"Ah, so you're finally awake!" he said when he spotted Riku. "How're you feeling?"

Riku quickly gathered his senses enough to come up with an answer.

"Uhm, I'm still a bit tired and my body hates me, but otherwise I think I'm fine," he said, a crooked smile on his face.

"Hah! Sounds like the leftovers of a morning workout," Donnie said, smiling back and reached out a three fingered hand. Riku took a hold of it and got a firm handshake.

"I'm Donatello," he said, his voice warm and welcoming. "You can call me Don, or Donnie."

"Riku," Riku said, releasing himself of the handshake. "Hermione told me that you're the one who found me and got me here."

Donatello threw a quick look over his shoulder at the girl who had seated herself once more on the little stool by the window, eyes examining the red colored soup in the bowls Donatello had brought them.

"She did now, did she?" he said as he turned back to Riku. "Did she also tell you that her magic was what kept you from going into a coma?"

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><p><em>Author notes: Finally, all three groups are assembled! What do you think of the mix? Unexpected? interesting? Terrible? Adding Donatello demanded a thorough thinking of me, 'cause I love him as a character, but he's also the only one in the three groups who isn't human, so I was a bit worried about the over all balance, but then I thought, hey, he's perfect in personality for the story, so I went for him anyway. Also, he was the only of the three choises I came up with whom I knew enough about to make my own version of without straying too far away from the original. Tell me what you think of the groups! ^^ Silverspegel_


	15. 14 Brothers lost

**Chapter 14: Brothers lost**

"_I'm haunted by your shadow. I reach to feel your face. You're not here." _(Tokio Hotel, _Rescue me)_

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><p>Riku blinked in surprise and looked past the turtle to get another view of Hermione.<p>

"You've got magic?" he asked her and blushing, she looked down at her hands.

"Yes, not that it can do much, but…"

"Ah, shmuck!" Donatello interrupted her. "You're great at it, don't you dare say anything else! Just because you made one mistake it doesn't mean you're no good! Geez, ever heard of practice? No one's perfect the first time you try something!"

Hermione looked like she was going to bite back at him, then bit her lip and nodded silently instead.

"I know you're right, Donnie, I just… it was my fault we got separated! If I hadn't missed…"

"…then we don't know what would have happened," Donatello filled in for her. "Try to look at the bright side of it: thanks to that miss of yours, I got someone to talk to and Riku here didn't end up comatose or sold off as a slave at the market," he added and made an inclination with his thumb towards Riku.

Eyes widened at this new information, Riku looked from one to the other.

"Slave? What kind of place is this?"

Donatello nodded towards the window.

"Montessor Space Port. It's more or less a giant mixer bowl for all kinds of scum together with a bunch of ordinary honest working people. Sailors, traders and pirates. And not one of them is anything like the other. I swear, this is the first place ever that I've been to, where I'm not the weirdest looking dude on the party," he said and headed over to the table to get his bowl of soup.

Riku shrugged and tested his legs before he stood up, swaying for a moment, but once he felt secure enough, he walked over to the table as well, got his bowl and looked out the window as he took a careful sip.

The soup was probably the best tasting thing he had ever eaten, rich with flavor and thick and creamy enough to be a full meal on its own.

"You were right, Hermione," he said and gave the girl a smile when she looked up at him. "This place knows how to make food."

"Told you so," Hermione said. A small smile was spreading on her lips, slowly washing away the former sadness from her expression.

Donatello hummed his agreement, but added a slightly disappointed grimace to it.

"I still wish they could find it in them to make at least one pizza," he said, looking at the bowl as if he'd asked for milk and had gotten plain water instead.

Riku laughed at his expression and Hermione soon fell in as well, resulting in Donatello smiling wide at his own childish wish.

" I can't help it, you know. I just want something that reminds me of home," he said a moment later after they had all finished their meal. "A guy has the right to get home-sick, right?"

This made Riku think of the fact that he didn't know much at all about his two new friends, least of all Donatello.

"So, uhm, Don, what happened to your world, if you don't mind me asking?" he said, not wanting to look at him in fear of seeing the same despair that he felt inside himself reflect in the other's eyes.

Donatello felt a shiver go through his body and shook his shoulders in a try to make the feeling of unease leave him. He liked this guy and it felt good to speak to another one of his own age who didn't care about what he looked like. Sure, he had always had his brothers, but he'd never really had a friend outside of the family, the way Raph had Casey. He didn't count April, simply because she was, after all, a woman.

With a deep sigh he started to tell Riku the same story he had told Hermione when he'd met her about one month ago.

The shadows had come at night.

The city had been unusually quiet that night, as if even the bad guys had sensed something was going on. Master Splinter had been troubled by a strange feeling of a great darkness that was getting closer, but he couldn't make out what it all meant.

Leonardo had taken the four of them top side to do the round, mostly for the sake of getting outside and away from the tense atmosphere that had developed at home.

When they spotted the first moving shadow, they thought it to be a burglar, or perhaps a stray member of the Foot. But when they'd got closer, they'd realized that they were wrong.

Then the rest of the shadows had shown up in a rapid pace, multiplying their numbers too fast for any of them to get a good headcount on the enemy they were suddenly facing. But this hadn't been the hard part. After all, they'd managed to get out of situations with far worse odds before. What had been hard was to understand that these things wouldn't let themselves be beaten.

Their weapons had cut right through them without making them as much as flinch. The only thing that seemed to make them take as much as a sidestep, was a clear hit with either Donatello's bo staff or Michelangelo's nun-chucks. Leonardo's and Raphael's sharp weapons didn't seem to be of any use at all, though.

Doing their best to keep the creatures off themselves, they had retreated down the sewers, followed by the horde of living darkness. But that had only served to trap them, as the things suddenly came up through the ground and the walls.

Leonardo had been caught first, the shadows probably sensing that he was the one keeping them together. Donatello could still feel the same dreadful cold that he had felt back then in his chest the moment that the oldest of his brothers had just vanished from existence. One moment he'd been right beside him, and in the next, a shadow had come up from behind, reached out and…

Leonardo had just stopped in his movements and in the next moment he'd dissolved into several specks of light. The shadow had held a shining object in its hand and had gone through the nearby wall before any of them had had time to react.

Michelangelo had rushed forward, the disbelief clear in his eyes together with a rage that Donatello had never seen in his younger brother before. But before he had been able to reach the disappearing shadow, he had been caught by his ankle and in a matter of seconds he had been pulled down to the ground, landing on one of the shadows, reaching up for his chest. Donatello had blinked and another of his brothers was gone.

Donatello had felt tears leave his eyes as he fought on to keep the shadows back. He was still alive and he still had one of his brothers with him and by the gods, he would protect him for as long as he could. He had seen Raphael observe what happened in a growing disbelief, anger and despair mixing in his eyes as he looked at him. Raphael, knowing that his sais couldn't harm the enemies, had picked up Michelangelo's nun-chucks from the spot where he'd fallen and had done his best to fight alongside Donatello.

That's when a new creature had shown itself.

It had been tall, walking with a straight back like a human, wearing a night black cloak that hid its body, and a wide hood that hid its head and main facial features. But the glowing yellow eyes and gleaming white sharp teeth had been easy to spot nonetheless. It had stepped up beside Raphael, and before Donatello had known it, the thing held his brother by the neck, lifting him off the floor.

"_The ssshard,_" it had hissed with a voice reminding Donatello of a snake. Raphael had responded as expected with a number of well chosen curses and kicks that didn't hit their target.

Donatello had gone for it from behind, but the creature had somehow been expecting this and had just grabbed his staff and thrown him around to hit the wall hard, luckily enough hitting shell first.

After asking its question once more and getting the same response, the creature had simply taken out a black, sharp blade from the depths of its cloak, and stabbed it right through Raphael's chest, making him freeze in his movements.

Donatello had screamed. He had screamed his throat sore in one go and had launched himself at the creature still holding his now lifeless brother.

But the thing had just taken a step aside at the very last moment, making him miss and fall over at the lost balance. He had rolled right back up to his feet, but it had been too late. The creature had taken what had looked like a black jewel out of the wound he'd made on Raphael's chest, and the last of his brothers had disappeared just like the others.

The pain had been so unbearable that he had found himself unable to move as the creature had smiled viciously and turned towards him.

He didn't know what had saved him, but for some reason, he had found himself falling backwards through a hole in the wall that had closed itself as he'd gone through it. The last thing he'd seen had been the shadow monster's foul grin of displeasure at seeing him slip away.

Then he had landed here, in this far off world, where nothing was like home and where he knew no one. Heartbroken and lost, Donatello had spent his first weeks just trying to grasp what had happened while he did his best to survive on the streets of the port, doing a shop owner a favor of keeping scumbags off his door every now and then. That job had given him the money needed to get some food and later on it had lead to an employment as protector of the same shop, which had given more money and he'd finally been able to get a roof over his head.

He had met Hermione some time later, having the girl falling practically into his arms as he'd turned around a corner. They had quickly become friends, turning to each other as two lost souls in a strange world, both having lost all they had held dear within too short a time span. They had found the Ratatouille Inn and had decided to move in there, and this brought them up to today's date.

Now, they were three. Nothing was ever going to be the same as before and all three of them had lost so much.

_But maybe_, Donatello thought as he laid himself down in his bed that night, _Maybe, together we can win some of it back_.


	16. 15 Opening doors

_Author notes: This chapter will be a bit messy, since I'll weave the three different lines into one chapter, but bear with me. It's the last chapter of part one! Enjoy!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 15: Opening doors<strong>

"_Have no fear when the waters rise! We can conquer this great divide!" (_Hanson, _Great divide_)

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><p>"So, this jewel-mathingie of yours can open doors to other worlds?" Luffy asked Will with a doubt mixed curiosity. He'd seen his fair share of strange things, even back at his own world, but opening cross-dimensional doors with a necklace, now that was a bit stranger than he was ready to believe in without any kind of proof.<p>

Sora didn't seem all that surprised though, he just gave the pirate a look as if he was stupid for questioning Will in this matter and kept eating his breakfast toast.

Will, however, nodded in reply to his question, a serious expression in her face.

"At least it could do it back on my world, and it took me here, so I guess it can take me to other places as well."

"We'll know soon enough," Sora said, tightening one of the straps holding up his fingerless gloves. "Since we'll have to visit other worlds in order to fight back the heartless and to get a clue as to what is happening, that portal opening skill will have to be put to the test as soon as you guys are ready to leave," he continued and gave the two of them a hard look with his clear blue eyes, a sign of uncertainty slowly creeping into his appearance. "That is, if you still want to come with me," he added.

In reply to this, Will produced the Heart of Kandrakar where she sat, making Jim's mother flinch in surprise as she came up from behind to ask if anyone wanted more tea.

"My goodness," she said, looking as if hypnotized at the jewel in Will's hand, but managed to get herself together rather quickly. After all, her son had told her about his new friends and what they were planning to do, so if they had strange objects of power in their possession, it shouldn't be all too surprising. "Anyone who would like a refill of their breakfast?" she asked, putting her heartwarming smile back in place.

Luffy was about to accept the offer, but Jim, who sat next to him, stomped down hard on his foot under the table.

"Nah, we're full, but thanks mom," Jim said as Luffy did his best not to let the pain he felt in his foot show in his face. "Ain't that right?" Jim added and gave Luffy a stern look.

The pirate nodded, his lips pressed together in a toothless smile, not daring to open his mouth, lest a slight scream would escape.

"Yeah, Mrs. Hawkins, we've already eaten way too much," Sora said, eyes glittering and a hearty smile on his lips as he turned to her. "Your food has to be the best around! I haven't had such a great breakfast for a very long time."

"Me neither," Will added in agreement. "You're very kind to let us stay here."

The innkeeper smiled, grateful for the praise and gratitude shown.

"Oh, don't think about it dear," she said and started to collect the dishes from the table. "It's not all that often my son brings friends home to visit, so I'm just glad to help."

Jim looked a bit awkward at this, but none of the others mentioned it.

"So, I guess you're really leaving then?" Jim asked as they all left the Benbow Inn about thirty minutes later.

"Yep," Sora said, sounding way too cheerful for the gloomy expression in his face. "I have to start doing something now, before it all gets to grow too big. The heartless spread fast, and they've already hit this world, with a weak force, but still."

"And I will do whatever I can to help you," Will said, putting a tight fist over her chest, at the place where she kept the Heart."I owe it to my friends and to my world. If joining this fight means that I have a chance of returning things back to the way they were, then that's what I'm going to do."

Luffy nodded, for once a serious expression in his face. He had got a set of new clothes from Jim, seeing how his original outfit was way too chilly in this moist climate. Heavy and tight fitting black leather marching boots, dark grey-black pants of some sturdy material, a white shirt and over this a black and very well-worn leather jacket with a silver zipper. The clothes changed his appearance greatly, and despite the straw hat that he'd refused to get rid of, they all had to admit that Luffy actually looked his age now.

"I will do all I can to kick those bastards out of existence, after what they've done," Luffy said, his voice dark and heavy with emotion.

Jim nodded, and they walked in silence for a while.

When they reached the swamp where he had found Sora two days ago, Jim stopped and kicked a rock into a close by puddle of mud.

"Are you sure I can't be of any help to you?" he asked, making Sora stop and turn to look at him, the others doing the same as they realized that he'd stopped.

Sora's face suddenly looked way older than it should, his eyes revealing the knowledge and pain of someone who have lived through way too much hardship in too short a time, but there was understanding in them as well.

"I know you wish to do your part as well, Jim. Trust me, I would probably ask the same in your position, but the best thing you can do is actually to stay here and keep an eye on the heartless that might come here and keep this place secured until we return. I wish with all my heart that I could go on this journey alone, but I have to have some help if I'm going to make it. The heartless are no picnic fighting."

Luffy looked at Sora with respect in his eyes and gave him a hard pat on the back, bringing him a bit off balance, shaking the seriousness out of him.

"And besides, while you are way too smart to go against this guy's recommendations, I'm just way too stupid and I would follow him whether he wants me to or not," Luffy said with his customary wide and toothy grin back in place.

Will laughed at the comment, and both Jim and Sora had to join in on the laughter as the silliness of it all was too obvious to resist.

"Ok, I'm staying, but you better make sure you get back here in one piece, all of you," Jim said as soon as he could catch his breath again.

The trio in front of him nodded their agreement and Sora suddenly put out his left hand in front of him.

"We'll make a vow, right here and right now," he said. " That we will keep the memory of each other within our hearts and that we, no matter what happens, will keep those hearts beating so that one day we will return to this spot, friends forever."

Jim put his hand over Sora's and the hands of Luffy and Will followed suit, all of them looking at each other and knowing they would stay true to this promise.

"Now that we've got that settled," Sora said, the serious expression back in his eyes, "would you do the honors, Will?"

Will gave him a short, confirming nod and backed off a few steps and called forth the Heart. It shone with a pulsing, excited light, almost as if it knew what was going to happen next.

"Heart of Kandrakar, unite me with my power!" Will called out to the jewel in her hand. The jewel shot out of her hand and in a flash of white light she was enclosed in a ball of energy and in the very next second, the guardian of the Heart stood there among the others.

"Now then," she said and grabbed the Heart as it returned to her, "I'm ready to go, are you?"

Sora and Luffy nodded and Will turned around, slicing at the air with the jewel, and to the boys' surprise, the air was ripped open, leaving what looked like an ellipse shaped portal of blue and white swirls of light.

Will backed off a step and turned to the others.

"I don't know where this will lead us, the Heart has chosen the path on its own, since I didn't know the destination. So be on your guard, in case we're rushing into something we don't expect," she said.

Sora let out a long breath before he walked up to the portal.

"Let's do this," he said, and giving Jim a crooked smile over his shoulder, he called forth the keyblade and stepped through the opening.

Kairi examined the colorful disc with the exactness of the curious, but she still couldn't find anything that told her that this particular piece of concave metal held any form of magic at all. Still she knew it worked, because the day before she had used it together with Hauru as they'd opened it to the little medical shop that he owned, several blocks away from the bath house. There had come a knock on the door, and the disc had turned, so that the arrow had pointed on a dusky blue stripe instead of the white one, Hauru had unlocked the door and simply opened it to enter the shop.

"It's very practical," was all that he'd said when Kairi had stepped through after him and one moment later he'd opened the shop's entrance door and Astrid had walked in.

Astrid… Kairi turned and looked at the sleeping girl in the bed Hauru somehow had made appear in the room. After meeting her in the shop, Kairi had insisted on that they took her with them to the bathhouse. Hauru had been somewhat disturbed by it all, but to both of the girls' surprise he'd agreed to Kairi's wishes and they'd taken the magical door back to his room at the bath house.

There was something about the girl that made Kairi feel safe, as if they were meant to meet and for some reason she thought the blonde felt the same way. Astrid had told her about her world and Kairi had been fascinated by the thought of riding dragons the way Astrid had told her about it. Kairi smiled at the memory and went over to the viking to wake her up. Hauru would be here any minute now, if he had any sense of time. Where he had been spending the night, Kairi didn't know, just that he hadn't been here.

The morning light was seeping through the curtains in thin golden rays that created colors in the former grey dusk of the room, giving Astrid's tangled hair a slightly warmer glow. Reaching down, Kairi gave Astrid's shoulder a gentle push and the girl reluctantly opened her eyes.

"Do I _have_ to get up now?" she asked and hugged her pillow close to her face, not willing to leave the warm softness just yet.

"Well, it's either that, or you'll get shoved out of bed by Hauru when he comes back," Kairi said with a giggle.

In a rush the viking was on her feet, putting on her leather plate skirt, secured her sword to her hip and strapped on her knee-high boots. Next she got on her bolt adorned shoulder guards of shining metal and the dark brown leather arm guards. In a quick series of movements she had brushed her hair and gathered it in a thick braid, put on the thin leather bandana and adjusted the skull decorated belt at her waist so that the sword hung at a comfortable reach.

Kairi was impressed at the speed with which the other girl had dressed and Astrid smiled as she noticed the surprised look in her friend's face.

"I've spent like fifteen years of my life improving my gearing up time in order to be the first to reach the battle field. It still comes in handy, even though there are no attacking hordes of dragons or enemy tribes here," she said and peeked out the window. "So, when do you think the magus will be here?" she asked, meaning Hauru.

"Actually," Kairi started, but was interrupted by the sound of the disc by the door turning with a rattling sound that ended with a clank as a clear pearly white stripe was pointed out by the black arrow. "I believe he's here now," Kairi finished and turned to face the door.

The lock was turned and Hauru entered, wearing a dark turquoise coat over his shoulders, carrying a tray of steaming bowls in his hands. As he got inside, the door closed behind him as if on its own accord. Kairi caught a glimpse of well kept wood board floor, creamy white walls with dark wood panels and a large spruced window showing a marvelous flower field bathing in golden sunlight.

"Anyone feeling up for some fried eggs and bacon with freshly baked toast rippled in honey and the best tea around?" he asked, his voice cheery and his face glowing with his smile.

Kairi looked at Astrid and met the same surprise in the other girl's eyes as she felt herself at this unexpected cheerfulness.

"You got us breakfast?" Astrid asked, still a bit shocked.

"From where?" Kairi asked, still a bit curious of the place she had seen on the other side of the door.

Hauru smiled at their surprised faces and put down the breakfast tray on the bar table that separated the bedroom from the kitchen area.

"I've lived here for some time now and it has given me the opportunity of exploring the culinary offers of this world," he said as he gave one of the egg- and bacon-bowls to Astrid. "And the best breakfast, in my opinion, is served at the Benbow Inn down on Montessor. So, I've hired a small room there and connected it to this door in order to get a taste of it whenever I feel like it," he continued and gave Kairi her bowl as well.

Cocking an eyebrow in thought over this, Kairi tasted the greasy breakfast and had to admit that she'd never tasted bacon quite like this before. Astrid had more or less finished her ration already and had gone for her honey rippled toast and the tea.

"Seriously, I will pay you back," she said as she put her teeth into the bread. "This is delicious!"

Hauru laughed; a light and tingling sound that made both girls feel lighter in their hearts for a moment.

"I'll put it on your bill then," he said with a wink of his eye and started on his own breakfast.

"Hauru," Kairi said as she put away the half eaten bowl of egg and bacon, "I'm going to ask a favor of you, but you don't have to agree to it if you don't feel like it." She turned to Astrid. "This goes for you as well," she said and the both of them looked at her with curiosity clear in their eyes. "I have to find out where the heartless are coming from this time around and I'll have to stop them from taking over more of the worlds that are out there. Now, I know I can't do this alone, even Sora had help when he did it, and I don't want to do it alone, but still I don't want to ask anyone to walk into this danger with me, unless it's their own will to do so. So, I want you to tell me, if the two of you want to help me in this."

"Are you daft?" Astrid asked and threw one of her arms across Kairi's shoulders in a half way hug. "I don't know what it is that tells me so, but I'm supposed to go with you and I want to do it. I thought I told you so yesterday? I wanna' kick those things' butts for what they did to my world and I wanna' find my friends!"

Hauru nodded.

"I'm in on this as well. You have a destiny in which I am going to play my part and more if I can. You're a key bearer, a symbol for hope and a guardian of light. If I didn't help you, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself," he said, the cheerful expression gone. "Besides, if anyone can help me get back to Sophie, it's you."

Moved by this display of trust, Kairi couldn't help a tear from escaping her eye.

"Oh, you guys… Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Astrid said and continued eating on her toast. "I'm doing it for myself in first hand."

Kairi smiled at this and took up her bowl again to finish her breakfast.

About one hour later, they were all standing in front of the door. Astrid had her gear on and had borrowed a backpack from Hauru to fill with whatever food they could come to get a use of. Kairi carried a similar bag herself, containing some of Hauru's healing potions and a change of clothes for her and Astrid together with three blankets. Hauru had a shoulder bag filled with the magical equipment that he thought could come in handy.

"Now then, I haven't tried all the openings yet, but some time has to be the first for everything, right?" he said with a smirk and turned the lock a couple of times until the disk above the door had turned so that a silver grey stripe was pointed out by the arrow.

"Just one question," Astrid said as Hauru put his hand on the handle to open the door.

"Yes?"

"What if the world we go to has creatures that don't look like us? I mean, Kairi said that we shouldn't let anyone know about the existence of other worlds unless it's absolutely unavoidable."

Kairi nodded.

"Yes, that's true. Not everyone would take that kind of information as easy as any one of us who already have experienced the travel between worlds."

Hauru thought for a moment, then nodded as if he'd finished a conversation he'd had with himself.

"I think I know how to do so that I can change our appearances to match that of the world we visit."

"Good, then let's go!" Astrid said, one hand on the hilt of her sword.

Kairi nodded her agreement and Hauru pressed down the handle, opened the door and stepped out into the forest on the other side.

Kairi hesitated at the sight of all the white material that covered the ground and parts of the trees.

"What's all that white stuff?" she asked Astrid as the viking stepped through to the other world as well.

Astrid blinked, then smiled uncertainly.

"Are you joking? You've never seen snow?"

Kairi shook her head.

"I've heard of it, but having grown up on a tropical island, I've never seen it," she said, still a bit worried about the cold coming towards her from the opening.

"It's just frozen water," Hauru said and motioned for her to come. "It's cold, but it's harmless."

Kairi took a deep breath and stepped forward, closing the door behind her as she joined with the others.

I'm coming, Sora,she thought, forcing a smile onto her lips.

"Do you know a way we could get from this world to another?" Riku asked as Hermione sipped on her morning tea.

She nearly choked on the warm brew and looked at him in a way that told him just how stupid she thought he was for asking it.

"I know _one_ way, but I'm _not_ trying that one out again until I know all the details of the spell," she snorted and Riku remembered what she had told him the day before about how she had got to Montessor Space Port.

He felt like hitting himself for bringing the subject up with her.

"If you don't mind trying something else," Donatello said, before Riku had a chance of apologizing to Hermione, "I think I might have a solution to that problem."

Both Riku and Hermione looked at him in surprise.

"And what is that?" Hermione asked, doubt clear in her voice.

Donatello scratched behind his neck in a nervous move and looked down into his tea.

"Uhm, well, I've sort of found this inter-planetary gate thing that I've been repairing for the last week or so. I got the last parts fixed yesterday, right before I found you, Riku."

"But, where is this thing?" Hermione asked, still not ready to believe him.

Donatello made an inclination with his head towards the window.

"It's in a warehouse down by the docks. It's been deserted for ages, according to the sailors. I don't know if it'll work, but at least we could give it a try."

Two hours later, after packing two bags with food and various things that could come in handy, the trio had walked down to said warehouse and Donatello showed them inside.

"It took quite some time to get the tools and the parts needed, and in some places I've had to make a few changes on the design to make the old parts work with the new ones, but basically it should work just fine," Donatello explained as he walked up to a large circular construction covered with a dirty piece of canvas.

He pulled at one end of the huge piece of fabric and uncovered a gigantic circle in two layers, made of a material looking like a mixture between metal and stone. It was kept upright by a robust and grounded anchoring that by the help of long cables and wires was connected to a set of control tables a bit away from the thing.

"And how do you know this?" Riku asked as he inspected the strange construction.

The inner circle was divided into a number of squares, and each square had a carving on it; otherworldly symbols that he couldn't even begin to understand the meaning of. The outer circle however, had nine triangular clasps evenly spaced over its brim, partially hanging over the inner circle, like pointers.

"It had a sort of manual," Donatello said, starting up an old fashioned computer with a large box-like screen. "Who ever built it or used it before, logged the activity into this computer's hard drive and by interpreting the actions taken for each trip into instructions of usage, I managed to figure out quite a deal about this thing."

"Like the fact that it can open up doors to other worlds?" Hermione asked, pointing at the construction with a suspicious look in her face.

"Actually, to begin with, they thought that it opened up portals to other planets within this world's universe alone, that's why they named it the _Stargate_. Only later on did they discover that some of the worlds they could reach weren't of this universe at all, but belonged to another dimension," Donatello told her as he typed something on the computer.

"And how do we make it work?" Riku asked, getting over to where Donatello was standing.

"By programming coordinates of some sort into this computer. The gate opens up to other places where there is a functional _Stargate_. It sort of works like a telephone, making a call from one end to another, using a specified code to locate the desired recipient," the turtle replied while he started to type something on the keyboard.

Riku looked a bit confused at the description, but figuring it would all become clear to him sooner or later, he didn't say anything.

"And how do we know where to 'make the call'?" Hermione asked, signing quotation marks in the air with her fingers as she looked over Donatello's shoulder to see what he did on the screen.

Donatello grimaced at this and typed in a combination of symbols that looked very much like some of the symbols on the gate.

"Honestly, we don't. But by combining the symbols in different patterns, we should be able to open up the gate anyway. Hopefully, the world it finds is one that will need our help or at least can help us find a clue as to where we should go."

"And how about getting back?" Hermione added skeptically. "I mean, is it just for us to turn around and go back in case we find ourselves in a place we really don't like?"

Donatello stopped for a moment in thought, before he continued his work with the computer.

"Well, you could, but you'd die. The traveling process includes dematerialization and if you would go the wrong direction, you would end up on the other side being more or less split up into millions of particles," Donatello said as he read something off the screen, not noticing Hermione's suddenly much paler face.

"When it comes to the details of the travel," he continued," the files saved up here say that 'the _Stargate_ creates a stable, artificial wormhole between itself and another _Stargate_, allowing near-instantaneous travel from the dialing gate to the destination gate, but not vice versa'. In short, a gate can only be opened up where another gate is already in place and you can only go one way. However, every gate is constructed with a dial device, called a DHD, which you use to call other gates. This gate here used to have one, but it got damaged or something, and so it was hooked up to these computers instead."

Riku cocked an eyebrow at this and crossed his arms over his chest, straightening himself up.

"But, if we want to come back here, don't we need to know the right code to get back?"

Donatello shrugged.

"I'm not saying this plan is fool proof, it's just that this is the only way I know of for us to go to other worlds, apart from using the heartless' portals."

"I don't like this at all," Hermione said, stepping back to take another look at the gate in front of them. "We don't know what could happen to us if we go through it, nothing!"

Riku shrugged. As far as he knew, he had nothing to lose. And if things went all too bad, he could always use his own portal opening ability as a last resort to get out of the mess.

"Well, I'm going to try this thing out," he said and gave Donatello a supportive pat on the shoulder. "As Don said, we really have no other way to do this kind of travel fast and I don't know about you, but I'm thinking we need to make every minute count in this battle."

Hermione grunted something and looked from the guys to the gate with a displeased and most uncertain expression in her eyes, her entire body language speaking of reluctance.

"Fine, we'll go. But don't you two complain when I get to tell you I told you so," she muttered, her brown eyes almost shooting sparks at them for forcing her to choose between rational safety and a pure game of chance.

Donatello smiled at this.

"Here we go then," he said, and pressed down the return key.

Suddenly the room was filled with a loud humming as the electricity started to run through the wires connected to the gate. The inner circle, the one with the symbols on it, started to move with a buzzing and clanking addition to the escalating hum of the equipment, one of the "clasps" of the outer circle moved, and lit up as the inner circle momentarily stopped.

"First chevron locked," said a mechanical voice coming from the computer and all three onlookers widened their eyes in wonder at what this could mean, while the inner circle started moving again.

"I think," Donatello said over the noise of the machinery, "it means that the first symbol in the address is located."

Another of the clasps lit up.

"Second chevron locked," said the computer generated voice as the circle once more moved.

This was repeated until the eighth clasp clicked in place and suddenly a white light was formed in the center of the circular structure and within a second; a major blast took place, sending out a large pillar of what looked like frothing water from the gate.

The pillar was almost instantly retracted, and left only what looked very much like the gently rippling surface of a small lake, like a membrane covering the former empty center of the gate.

"Wow," Riku breathed out in sync with Donatello. Hermione raised her eyebrows and looked at Donatello.

"Who volunteers to go first?" she asked, hoping for at least one of them to back out and take her side of this argument.

Without saying anything, Riku walked around the control table and got to the gate in five steps, stopping in front of it only for a short moment, then, with a deep breath, he walked through the opening.

"I didn't mean he should do it on his own!" Hermione burst out as soon as the shock let go of her. Both she and Donatello rushed forward to follow their friend, grabbing bags and, in Donatello's case, the bo staff as they went.

Hermione looked over her shoulder one more time, not quite sure why she was hesitating, but turned back to the gate as Donatello put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's now or never, Hermione," he said with a soft smile. "You don't have to come if you don't wish to, but I'm going with Riku."

Hermione took a deep breath and gave him a single, decisive nod.

"Let's do this!" she said and together they went through the gate.

A short moment after they had gone through it, the gate closed and the electrical hum died off.

* * *

><p><em>Author notes: Next part will be all about visiting new worlds, gaining stuff, losing stuff and getting really frustratingly close to finding what they search for and still failing to reach it. I know, I'm a horrible person. But I like it. ;) Enjoy! Just for your information, worlds coming up won't be entirely Disney-based as in the games. I think my chosen characters sort of reveals this, but one can never be too obvious about some things. ^^ Hope you like the story this far. More to come in "Shards of Darkness - part 2"!  Silverspegel _


	17. Part 2: chapter 1 Changes

**PART 2: In between worlds**

"_The meaning of life varies from man to man, from day to day and hour to hour. Therefore the importance lies not in the meaning of life in general, but within the specific meaning of a person's life in a given moment."_ (Viktor Frauld)

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><p><strong>Chapter 1:2: Changes<strong>

"…_And though the reputation of my death, brought joy to your houses, and took away the need of your despair; /… /I will once more stand among brothers. I am darkness, I am light /…/" _(The first prophecy of Simoquin, _The Simoquin prophecies_, Samit Basu)

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><p><em>He turned.<em>

_He knew now that he wasn't moving per sé, but it didn't matter. It was an act of trying to keep this new awareness alive. Something had changed and he could remember things he'd forgotten for so long, faces he loved and friends he missed. _

_A new knowledge had come with those memories; that he was not alone in the darkness that he had lived inside for so long and that at one point in his existence, he had been living, had been able to move in a body of his own that could feel touch, smell scents, se colors, hear sound and taste food. _

_Remembering all of this, he knew that he was, somehow, still alive. And he also had come to the conclusion that the reason for him not to still have these things within his grasp, was that he was captured, kept prisoner inside this never ending darkness._

_This in turn told him that if he was kept prisoner, someone had to be guarding him, had to be the one who'd put him there and wanted to keep him there._

_He still couldn't remember who he was, but he remembered being free and wished to be it once more._

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><p>"I see you have been making great progress in overtaking the worlds you come across, my friend," the man pointed out and smiled viciously as he made a short bow of his head. "I trust it that my heartless have been a pleasing addition to your own lines of warriors and allies?"<p>

The other one let out a short rumbling laugh that seemed to shake the walls of the throne room and the shadows stirred for a moment, before they came alive, crawling up to their masters with glowing eyes lusting for another order that would bring them what they desired.

"You could say that, _friend_," the master of the castle said with an amused voice as he directed his glowing red eyes towards his visitor. "They have been much pleasing."

The guest's smile stayed on, but he closed his lips around his teeth, his face turning more serious.

"I hope then that you can bring me good news on our search as well?"

Without saying anything, the other one reached inside his robes and presented his guest with a small velvet pouch.

"My servant has collected no less than three shards," he said and took out three jewel-like pieces of pitch black crystal from the pouch.

The guest's golden eyes lit up with desire at the sight of the shards in the other's hands, but his smile turned into a frown.

"Only three? If I'm correct, you've conquered about ten worlds already," he said and let his eyes wander from the shards to focus on the eyes of his ally. "Do you mean to say that only three of these worlds had darkness enough in them to produce the shards, or that these are the ones you managed to capture, while the others escaped?"

The other one's red eyes thinned into slits of blood red light inside the darkness of his hood.

"I am telling you that these three are the ones that were captured. Your heartless were unable to keep some of the shards in place until my servant could collect them. Also, may I remind you that not all worlds have these shards, as you yourself pointed out earlier. This crystal that you seek to finish didn't split up enough to cover the entire universe, am I not correct?"

Bowing softly in a false pretence of admitting defeat, the golden eyed one smiled.

"Correct, forgive me my rushed conclusions. I am but too eager to have this business finished. Have you encountered any problems in your search?" he asked in a polite manner as he returned his eyes to the other.

The heartless in the room started to mill about, eagerly moving around their true master as if wanting to tell him something despite their lack of voices and inability to create sound. Red eyes watched the shadows' actions with calm interest for a moment, before the questioned man answered his guest.

"Now that you mention it, there was an incident at one of the worlds. I believe you will know of who the opposition consisted."

A white eyebrow was raised above a golden eye.

"Hoh? So I take it that you've met with the keybearers?"

"My servant did indeed meet with them. The heartless were almost able to bring me one of them, but he escaped in the last moment. The other one was captured by my servant, but managed to escape by using the same dark powers that you, my _friend_, possess and so generously have lent me a part of. Did you know of this ability?"

With an approving smile, the guest nodded.

"Yes, I had my guesses on something like it, all though I had thought of him not to want to use those powers again. I guess I was wrong. Do you know where they escaped to?"

"No, but my servant and his aiding heartless are searching for their tracks while they continue the collecting of shards."

"Good. With a little bit of luck I guess we could be able to quench the keyblade warriors' spirits before they manage to go against us with more power."

The red eyed master of the castle observed his guest with interest and suspicion as he seemed to be having a silent conversation with himself.

"Tell me, my _friend_, what is it that you wish to use these key wielders for? They are but children and surely only two of them should be of no greater danger to face?"

Another devilish grin entered the guest's lips at this.

"No greater danger, you say? Hm, let me tell you that the younger one is a true keeper of the balance between light and darkness and has the ability to connect hearts to one another. Letting him roam free is the same as letting our opponents gather strength enough to keep the darkness at bay for as long as it takes for that boy to lock it up."

His host made a slight nod of understanding.

"Then why do you wish me to bring them to you alive? Why not kill them while they are weak and parted?"

"I need a vessel for the power I intend to set free, and a wielder of the blade is the perfect subject for this. Only someone with the strength that comes with being bound to the keyblade is able to survive the process. Any of the boys would do, but I would prefer it to be the younger one, seeing as he is the one most probable to be able to stop it all, should I use the other one."

Intrigued by this new information, the red eyed one leaned forward where he sat in his throne.

"You have done this before?"

"And I would have succeeded, but I… lost the vessel. I intend to not make the same mistake again, and therefore I need the Crystal! It is the very key to doing this the right way, as I told you before. All I wish to do is to open up the door that keeps the darkness out and cast the worlds into a new era of the very chaos that created them, unite them once more to become the one great world that they once were. If you've changed your mind about wishing to rule this one united world of old, I am sure I can find someone else to aid me in this."

The man on the throne put the shards back into the pouch and threw it at the white haired man before him. He caught it with one of his hands, smiling greedily as he put the pouch inside of his coat.

"Then I wish you the best of luck in your search and hope for our cooperation to continue," he said and turned around to leave through a dark opening that suddenly appeared beside him.

"It is a pleasure doing business with you, Xehanort," the red eyed one said with a voice sounding as if he was smiling at the guest from inside of his hood.

"Likewise, my horned friend. Likewise," he replied with a vicious grin before he went through the portal.

* * *

><p>"I fear that he's got a hold of some parts of the Crystal already," he said in a sudden realization and let his eyes wander over the endlessly grey and black scenery.<p>

"How do you know?"

He put a hand on his chest and grimaced.

"I can feel it. Can't you? The change in the surroundings. There is less light now and the ground is shifting beneath our feet. This world is getting ready for a change that it knows is to come. This is proof that pieces of the Crystal are starting to gather. The more pieces that come together, the more this world will change. It is the power of the Crystal to bring forth a change like this in a place where the light and the dark meet."

She looked at him with worried eyes and noticed the changes that he spoke of.

"What can we do? There must be something that we can do to stop this!"

He turned to look at his friend and gave her a sad smile.

"The trouble my dear, is that we cannot do anything as long as we are trapped in here, and as sad as it is to know it, my previous research in the matter tells me that the gathering of the Crystal probably is one of the few ways for us to get out of this prison of ours."

She gasped at this fact and her eyes displayed all the doubts and hopes that she experienced in her heart at hearing of this slim possibility of escaping this place of no time.

"But if the Crystal is gathered, wouldn't that mean the end of the worlds outside as well? What can he possibly be wishing to achieve by putting it together?"

He looked at her with sad eyes and waited for her to calm down before he spoke.

"Can you really not think of even one reason for him to do it?"

For a moment she was silent in thought, desperately trying to figure out what he meant, then suddenly her eyes widened as she understood.

"No… he wouldn't… Would he? But he must have learned the wrong in doing it the last time, right?"

He shook his head.

"He is too damaged by the darkness that he let inside his heart all those years ago. Just think about it. All that he's ever done is to keep aiming for his old goal and he won't give up until he succeeds."

They both stared at the still ocean before them for a moment of silent consideration.

"How is it that we have come to remember so much again?" she suddenly asked and turned to look into his eyes. "When I met you, I could barely remember who I was and you yourself were no better off."

He thought about the question for a moment, and then let his lips form a small smile.

"I think that our very presence to one another might be one reason for this reawakening of our minds, your light still being strong enough to keep you going and give me back a sense of self that I was about to lose when you found me. Another reason could be that this world is changing, letting us take part of what happens on the outside, even if it's just by vaguely sensing the change. I guess our connections to the world outside are slowly repairing themselves. But it's just a guess."

She nodded in understanding and let out a sigh that made him look back at her in surprise. It had sounded hopeful.

"I know that the change is happening because of the Crystal and that its gathering is something I should not hope for ever to be completed, but…" She paused for a moment as she closed her eyes and put a hand to her chest, remembering all the things that she missed about the world she had been closed off from for so long. "I can't help feeling a little hopeful that somehow this will turn out for the best. Is it wrong for me to do so?"

He shook his head and smiled.

"It's only natural I guess. This is the closest we've come to finding a way out of here, and I too hope for this way to open. After all, there are things we both wish to do out there, right?"

She nodded.

"I promised someone that I'd come back for him and I intend to keep that promise."

"Then let's pray that this change truly is a good one."


	18. Part 2: chapter 2 Forest of shadows

_So, now I'm entering the first world! Wee! I own nothing but the story for this fanfic, just wanna' make that clear...Enjoy! /Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>Chapter 2:2: Forest of shadows<strong>

"_There will be times, on this journey, all you see is darkness. But out there somewhere, the light finds you, if you keep believing." _(_Look through my eyes_, Phil Collins)

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><p>"Are you sure this isn't a standard thing?" Sora said as he looked down at his reflection in the slowly drifting water of a small brook.<p>

"Uhm, it hasn't happened before, if that's what you mean," Will answered as she tried her best not to stumble over her own feet, trying to walk over to his side.

"Guys, you look pretty weird, you know," Luffy said from where he stood about four wide strides away, looking first at them, then at the tall trees surrounding them all.

"You're not looking all that human yourself," Will commented with an annoyed grunt and leaned over the edge of the brook in order to get a look at herself.

Luffy took a look at his hands and realized this was true.

"Hey, I've got fur and stuff!" he exclaimed, still a bit drowsy from the transformation that they'd all gone through as soon as they'd entered this new world. "And claws! Cool!"

"You're a bear," Will noted and straightened herself up, rising up to stand on her hind legs as she took a look around. "We all are."

Sora looked at her, noticing that she was a bit smaller than him and Luffy, probably due to the age difference. She was, after all, the youngest of the three.

"I've been through this sort of thing before," he said, earning himself a curious look from the red furred female beside him. "In some worlds, I've been forced to take on another shape, call it a disguise, in order to blend in more or to be able to talk to and understand the inhabitants of the world in question. My guess is that whoever it is that we're supposed to meet here, that person is probably a bear," Sora quickly explained.

"Wait, 'supposed to meet'? What do you mean by that?" Luffy asked, his black furred bear face wrinkling in a comical manner as he seemed to be in deep thought.

Sora brought his left paw to his head and massaged his forehead, careful not to scratch himself with the long claws.

"Erm, I just mean that every world has its main inhabitants, those who are in most danger of becoming targeted by the heartless. In order to be able to understand those people I need to help, I have to either become one of them or dress up like them so that I won't freak them out or something like that. In this one place I've visited, I turned into a lion, and in another I sort of became a merman."

Luffy the bear lifted his heavy eyebrows in the same time as he dropped his jaw slightly, making the perfect picture of someone who didn't understand a single word said.

"Err, what?" he said and Sora sighed.

"Just find a way to deal with it, because we're not going to change back until we change world. At least that's the way it should work, or what do you think, Will?"

The red bear on his other side got back down on all fours with a snort of displeasure.

"I guess," she said and absentmindedly scratched at her chest with one of her front paws. "I've never been changed like this by the Heart before, but it seems like it must have somehow felt the need for transformation and made the decision on its own. It has been acting a bit weird ever since I left Heatherfield," she added, turning her head to gaze at the forest on the other side of the brook.

Luffy shrugged and got up on his feet, swaying a bit before he stabilized himself enough to walk on all fours, not all too familiar with that style of walking.

"So, where to?" he asked once he had managed to get over to where his friends were standing.

"I guess any way is optional," Sora said and started to walk upstream.

Luffy and Will followed close, not wanting to lose track of him.

They were surrounded by tall pine trees and spruce, mixed with some leaf bearing trees that they couldn't quite pin-point. It was an old and rich forest, full of life. A squirrel that jumped across the brook from one high tree branch to another on the other side made the trio look up and, in doing so they discovered the tips of mountains that showed above the tree tops in the far distance. They could hear birds chirp every now and then and for a moment they all felt comfortably calm and in tune with the whole place. This was a place where they all felt like they could stay for some time.

"You know," Luffy said as he watched a hare disappear into some nearby shrubs, "I sort of like this place."

Before any of the others could comment on this, they all heard a blood freezing roar echoing through the woods.

"You _had_ to say it, didn't you?" Will muttered under her breath to Luffy as Sora picked up speed in front of them.

"It came from over here!" he called out to them over his shoulder and jumped across the brook, his big body surprisingly agile in the terrain.

"Follow the bear," Luffy said with a grin and jumped across as well, quickly followed by Will.

"Sora, slow down!" Will yelled at the light brown bear in front of them. "We don't know what it was that made that sound and we could be running into a trap or…"

She didn't have time to finish the sentence.

With a loud "huff" she was pushed over her side, landing in a sideways roll as someone or something hit her side with a high speed.

She quickly got back up on her feet and Luffy had already turned around to see what had happened, when the object that had crashed into her groggily stumbled to the side and Will called out to Luffy to keep going after Sora.

"I'll be right behind you!" she added as Luffy with an uncertain look in his face did as she said and turned around to catch up with the key wielder.

"Now," Will said and turned to the somewhat dizzy bear cub in front of her, "what are you doing running around tipping decent people over like that?"

The cub blinked, then looked at her as if he just then and there realized that she was there.

"Oh, who, who are you?" he asked, a bit surprised.

"My name is Will, and I'm in quite a hurry to help my friends, who went ahead without me, thanks to you," Will replied and put on a stern look. "Who are you and where's your family?"

The cub made a move to turn his head around, then seemed to change his mind and looked back up at her instead. He was almost the same size as Will, just a tad smaller, which made her feel a bit annoyed at the fact that this meant she probably would be seen as a cub as well, if they met with other bears.

"I'm Koda and if you don't mind, I have to hurry too," he said and tried to rush past her, but Will simply put down a paw in his way and then pressed the other down on top of him, using her slightly bigger figure as an advantage.

"Not so fast," she said, a bit curious and worried for what it was that this cub was running from. "Why are you running?"

"My brother, he needs help, so I'm gonna' get some help from the village! They have weapons!"

Will blinked. Village? Did this mean there were humans in this world? Then why were they transformed into bears? Then she cut the train of thought off short as she remembered the first thing that Koda had told her.

"Wait! Your brother, was it by any chance him we heard just now?"

Koda nodded, eager to get away and with the worry obvious in his eyes.

"I'd get the other bears if they weren't so far away from here. The village is closer and his two feet brother lives there, he will help!"

"OK, you go off then, but my friends and I are going to do our best to help him as well, you hear?" Will said and ignored the weirdness of Koda's statement about a "two feet brother" to be dealt with later on.

Koda nodded, relieved and thankful.

"Yes! I'll run as fast as I can! You just keep the monsters busy and I'll lead the two legs here!" he said and as soon as Will released him, he ran off, calling out a "thank you" over his shoulder as he went.

Will started running in the direction where she'd seen the boys disappear before and hoped that she'd find them.

This proved not to be all too hard, as she only a short moment later heard another roar, this time sounding a bit different from the first one and for some reason, she thought of Sora.

"Great," Will muttered and picked up her speed, heading straight for the origin of the roar and hoping for her magic to still work despite her changed body. She rushed through a thick wall of bushes between two trees and landed in a large clearing, only one step behind the black mass of fur that was the back of Luffy, standing on his hind legs to use his arms more freely.

In the middle of the clearing were two bears, one a little darker brown than the other, doing their best to fight off a huge black beast, standing at least three times taller than the two bears, but still looking very similar to them in shape.

Long gleaming white claws slashed out at the duo in front of the heartless monster of a bear and the yellow eyes glowed with hunger at the sight of the enemies before it. As it opened its jaws wide, Will could see black sharp fang-like points along the side of the mouth, but had no time to think more about it as the beast suddenly spit out a ball of purple tainted black flames, hitting the ground only an inch away from where the lighter colored bear was standing.

"Sora!" Luffy called out and reached one of his arms back, readying the attack. "Duck!"

The lighter colored bear, who proved to be Sora, barely had the time to throw himself to the side before the bear paw shot forth, the limb extended to the extreme thanks to the still active curse that the pirate was under. When it hit the heartless beast, Luffy didn't make his paw into a fist as he would usually have done, but instead he pointed the sharp claws of his bear paw straight forward and pierced through the body of the enemy. He had turned the hit into a stab, and then continued to make it a slash, as he spun on his heels to retract the extended limb and bring it back to its original size. This resulted in the monster losing one of its forelegs, as Luffy's sharp claws cut through it on its way back.

"Yes!" Luffy exclaimed with a pleased smile in his face.

Sora and the other bear, who Will guessed to be Koda's brother, retreated for a bit as the heartless stumbled to the ground, unable to keep itself upright when one point of stabilization was taken away from it.

"It's not over yet," Will said to Luffy and took a step forward. "Look!" She pointed to the heartless and Luffy took another look at it as well and snapped his jaws close around the oncoming cheer.

"No-fucking-way…" he breathed out with skepticism apparent in his voice.

The monster once more rose to its feet, and as it did so, the cut off leg grew back out.

Sora gritted his teeth.

The thing had already given him a wide and poisonous gash at his side that was eating away at him while he fought, and now it was regenerating limbs as well?

He hated heartless. They were too unpredictable. Always so unpredictable.

"Kenai!" he called out to the bear beside him. "We need to get away from that thing before it sees us again!"

The other nodded and ran towards the other two bears he saw were standing at the edge of the clearing and Sora turned to follow, when suddenly the heartless noticed the movement and a gargantuan paw was smashed down right in front of his nose, cutting him off from the others. Sora quickly backed away from the threat, feeling the scar at his side sting with the motion. He needed to heal, and he needed it badly, but that spell took a little time to charge up and he didn't have that time. The heartless tried to hit him again and Sora only escaped by a hair this time, wincing as the wound was stretched out when he landed roughly on the grassless ground.

Sora rolled to his feet and decided he couldn't wait any longer. Running towards the back of the heartless, where it couldn't see him, he reached down inside for the warm light that he knew would be there and he felt the weight of the Kingdom Key between his teeth forthwith. He didn't quite like this fighting style, but he had managed it in a way smaller body before, so this time should be easier than that last time.

Jumping with all the strength he could conjure up in his hind legs, Sora sailed through the air, keyblade raised in a battle ready position and started spinning in the air as he reached the top of his jump's arc. He landed in a spin, the keyblade making contact with the bear heartless' lower back spine in a flash of sparkling light. The humongous creature howled in anger and pain, but it didn't fall. Instead, it twisted around and lashed out at the nuisance, hitting Sora straight on in the back, sending him flying to the ground.

Sora crashed into the dirt and grumble that their fight had brought forth as the grass had been torn up during their repeated encounters with the laws of gravity.

Will bared her teeth in anger. This fight was unfair and she wasn't going to just stand by and watch as Sora was getting squished like a bug by this sorry excuse of a bear. Before Kenai or Luffy had the time to react, Will rushed forward, knowing she would get one shot at this and one only, while the enemy had its attention turned towards the groggily staggering Sora.

"Heart of Kandrakar, unite me with my power!" she called out, the jewel appearing in a flash of bright light and as Will took a jump into the air, she felt her paws transform and her body shrunk quickly to adjust to the new shape. Sharp talons and long air-cutting feathers replaced big paws, long claws and fur. Out from the light produced by the Heart soared a red eagle, bristling with electrical power. Will didn't know what she'd expected, but at least this shape gave her the advantage she had been looking for.

"Hey, you! You big bully! Try a moving target!" she called out to the heartless, her voice coming out with an undertone of a screech.

The heartless turned its head upwards to look at the new adversary and as it did so, Will charged up her energy and released a thunderous lightning bolt, hitting the monster bear directly in the eyes. She quickly turned and made another shot from a new direction, making the heartless turn her way once again, forgetful of Sora and the others.

Sora saw the flash of light and caught a glimpse of the electrified bird that shot upwards through the sky and smiled inwardly with a thankful thought to the guardian as he scrambled to his feet and charged up the healing spell. The green light had barely died off before he jumped, aiming for the heartless' back once more, but not in order to stab it. Instead, this time he started to climb up the spine as soon as he landed, burying his long claws into the shadowlike fur and flesh of the monster.

Will kept the beast busy with her attacks, taking its attention off the bear on its back.

When Sora reached the back of the beast's skull, he called out to the guardian as clearly as he could muster with the handle of the keyblade in his mouth.

"The eyes! Will! Now! Hit the eyes!"

Will listened and in a sweeping downwards dive she sent off another ball of energy and managed to hit the monster straight in the glowing yellow eyes. The creature responded to this with a hissing animalistic scream and Sora took the opportunity to use this moment to release the attack he had been charging up while he waited for Will to do her part. The keyblade was glowing in a golden light and Sora took a jump into the air before he sent the blade spinning away with a final surge of magical power added.

The Strike Raid hit spot on in the junction between skull and neck and as Sora was starting to fall downwards, the keyblade came spinning back to him. He caught the Kingdom Key between his teeth and sent it off once more with a quick charge, all though not as powerful as the last one. This second hit sent the monster crashing to the ground at the same time as Sora landed in a roll, rising up on his hind legs to catch the returning blade.

Will attacked at the same spot that she had seen Sora's weapon hit. She took a steep dive towards the spot, charging up on her power, almost turning into a ball of pink and white flames as she went through the air at a breath taking speed. The impact created a thundering sound as the orb of light, flames and sparks that was sent off erupted in an all enclosing light.

As Sora opened his eyes, the last mist of the heartless disappeared in the air and he let the keyblade go back inside him. The cry of an eagle from somewhere above him made him turn his eyes upwards and he saw Will dive down towards him, unfolding her wings just in time to break her dive enough to make the speed of her landing bearable. In a flash of light, the bird was replaced by a red furred bear, landing softly on her hind legs and lowering her body in a natural movement that put her front paws on the ground just as gently.

"That was… interesting," Sora said as Will shook her body violently for a moment as if to get the fur back in place.

"Tell me about it!" she replied and gave him a tired smile.

"That was awesome!"

They turned to meet Luffy's smiling bear face, Kenai walking behind him with a slightly more amazed and confused expression in his.

"Who…or what are you?" he asked slowly, his voice not quite carrying.

Sora and Will looked at each other, then at Luffy, trying hard to come up with a good answer that wouldn't completely tilt this guy's world around.

"You've got the powers of the spirits with you, don't you?" Kenai suddenly continued before any of them had a chance to answer his first question. Sora could see a glimmer of sudden understanding in the bear's eyes as he figured that this was the truth, and since he couldn't find a fitting answer himself, Sora decided to stick to the explanation given.

"Yeah, we're here to help and we've been given these powers so that we can deal with monsters like that one," he said, carefully avoiding to tell an outright lie by involving the spirits that Kenai had mentioned.

Will understood what he was doing and hurried to cut in.

"We only just got here though, so if you know of any more of those things having shown up somewhere around here, it would be great if you could point us in the right direction."

Kenai thought for a moment, then his features suddenly changed. If he'd been human, Sora was certain that he would have turned quite pale, judging by the expression he had in his face.

"Kenai, what is it?" Sora asked, the worry clear in his voice.

"Where's Koda?"

"Who?" Luffy asked and looked around himself as if he expected to see someone else suddenly standing with them in the clearing.

"Koda! There was another bear with me, my brother, where is he? Did any of you see him?" Kenai was almost panicking now, his eyes searching the surroundings as he desperately tried to think.

"Wait!" Will said as she remembered the cub she'd run into on her way to the battle. "He's a cub, right? About two sizes smaller than me?"

The relief in Kenai's features was unmistakable.

"Oh, you've seen him? I got a bit worried for a moment there. Do you know where he went?"

Will wrinkled her forehead as she tried to remember the details.

"He said something about a village and getting help from someone there."

This, for some reason made Kenai a bit tense.

"Something wrong?" Will asked, trying to figure out what part of the information she'd given him that had caused him to react like this.

"I'm not too sure about it, but when Koda and I passed the village earlier today, I got this weird feeling about the forest close to it, and the same thing happened here, right before that monster attacked. Do you think there could be more of those things over there?"

Sora suddenly understood why Kenai had gotten worried again and wasted no time on thinking over the options.

"There's only one way to find out," he said and got himself ready to run, "but my guess is that we should hurry. Kenai, lead the way!"

Sora didn't need to tell the bear twice.

Kenai set off into the woods and Sora, Will and Luffy were quick to follow, all though it was hard for them to keep up with Kenai, who was more familiar with the terrain and, naturally, more used to running on all fours.

As Sora came up to Kenai's side for a moment, he could hear the bear mumbling something to himself, like a prayer, and when he managed to make out the words, Sora felt a shiver down his spine.

"_Oh, please let him be alright, mighty spirits keep him safe!"_

Pressing himself harder to keep up with his new friend, Sora sent out a prayer himself, figuring it couldn't do any harm to ask for some help if there was any to get.

_Don't let me be too late!_


	19. Part 2: chapter 3 Joining the pack

**Chapter 3:2: Joining the pack**

"_The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept __working__, __hunting__, and companion animal in human history/…/Dogs were __domesticated__ from gray wolves about 15,000 years ago. /.../In 2001, there were estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world. /…/Through __selective breeding__ by humans, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied __breeds__, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal."_ (Wikipedia)

* * *

><p>"Do you hear that?"<p>

Astrid and Hauru turned to look at Kairi, who'd suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"Hear what? The wind is blowing ice into my ears: I can hardly hear myself think!" Astrid commented and put her hands to her ears, forming a small shield against the howling of the wind, trying hard to hear whatever it was that Kairi had heard.

"I thought I heard dogs barking…" Kairi said, listening into the silent forest around them once more.

"Sorry, can't hear a thi-" Astrid started, but cut herself short as a gust of wind suddenly brought the sound of a group of dogs barking and growling, as if in a fight.

"Scratch that," the viking said and turned towards the source of the sound. "Since the wind came from east of here, my guess is we should go that way if you wanna' check it out."

Kairi nodded as her companions turned to her for a decision.

"I don't know why, but I'm getting the feeling that it's important for us to get there."

"It's not like we've got any other plans," Astrid said with a smirk and started to jog ahead of them in the snow.

Hauru turned to Kairi and put an arm around her shoulder as they started walking after their friend.

"Are you sure you're not freezing? I could enhance the spell if you like," he said, giving Kairi's shivering shoulder a squeeze with his hand. "After all, you're not used to this climate, like Astrid, and I'm way more used to the heat-spell's effects than you."

Kairi gave him an appreciative smile, but shook her head to the offer.

"Thank you, but it's not because of the cold. I just have this really bad feeling about this and I think I know why, which makes me feel even worse."

"Heartless?" Hauru asked and Kairi nodded.

"I think so. I can sense something dark at the place where we're headed. It reminds me of the heartless, but it seems a bit different… It could be that this world has affected the heartless somewhat and this change also affects the vibes they send off, or something… Sora once said something about the heartless adapting to the worlds they visit in a way of becoming stronger."

Kairi almost bit her tongue at the mentioning of Sora. Saying his name sent a small sting into her heart, as if being pricked by needles of guilt, love, loss, sadness and worry, all at the same time. Hauru saw the shift in her expression and kept his hand on her shoulder in a way to show his understanding of what she felt.

"You'll find him. He found you, didn't he? If he could do it, you can."

She had told Hauru and Astrid all about her situation and about Sora and Riku. It had felt good to share the story with someone and they had in turn let her in on their stories as well, easing the pain felt as the feeling of loneliness was lifted from them by the mere company of each other.

"I just… miss him," Kairi said and stared off into the distance as they went on forward in the snow. "And I'm worried. I don't know how to find him, let alone where to look. I guess it's how he must have felt… before…"

Hauru didn't say anything, but he kept his hand at her shoulder. He didn't want to say what he thought, because it wasn't what she needed to hear at this moment, so he kept quiet. But he hoped for his suspicions to be wrong and that her hopes were right, that her Sora was alright and that they would find him somehow. He knew though that the world was a dark and dangerous place. No matter where you came from, reality was never as simple and pretty as one's fantasies or dreams made it seem. You could change the world around you by acting the right way, but in the end, you had to face and accept the facts of the real world. Facts like the existence of, among other things, greed, danger, accidents… and death.

"Hey you sloths! If you're done cuddling, I think we've got ourselves a situation here!" Astrid's voice came towards them out of the mist made by the airborne snow.

Kairi freed herself from Hauru, suddenly uncomfortably aware of what their closeness might look like and hurried towards Astrid. Hauru jogged after her and as he got to the girls, he looked at Astrid with something resembling annoyance in his eyes. Astrid took no notice of it though and nodded towards something just below the cliff they were standing on.

"Down there, it's hard to see in all the whirling snow, but there are a lot, and I mean A LOT of dogs down there and you can never guess what they're fighting."

Kairi squared her jaw in determination and focused on an area of the forest below where the trees were a bit further apart than otherwise.

"Heartless," she muttered between clenched teeth.

"Let me guess," Astrid said in response to this statement, "we will have to go down there and fight them as well?"

Kairi turned to Hauru.

"If we're going to fight with the dogs, we need to understand them and they will have to understand us! That's the best way to go at it."

Hauru nodded his understanding.

"Then I suggest you close your eyes for a moment, because some transformations can be a bit nasty to look at."

Astrid gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll see. Just do as I say."

With a small shrug the viking closed her eyes, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the situation, but figuring it was for the best. The faster they got this "transformation"-business over with, the faster they could fight.

Hauru drew a circle in the snow, and wrote a number of various symbols in different places inside of it, creating a complex pattern for all three of them to stand in. He placed the girls in the right positions and then took his own place, before mumbling some strange words. Both Astrid and Kairi were tempted to look at what he was doing, but they didn't.

A strange kind of warmth hit them and they could feel something changing in their bodies, something that made them feel not quite right. As they fell over and got to stand on all fours as if having been pushed from behind, they both opened their eyes in a mere reflex of wanting to know what was going on.

Astrid found herself staring down into the snow and a tingling sensation in her paws told her that the chill of the snow was getting to her, but not as much as she would have thought. She blinked. Paws? She looked up to see a dog with a deep red fur and a curled tail standing in front of her. The all over build told her that it was a female, but a very strong and muscular one, none the less. The big pointed ears turned her way and she recognized the deep blue eyes.

"Kairi? You're a… I'm a…" Astrid tried to see herself, only succeeding in finding out she had pale blond fur, four legs and a thick, long hanging tail. She turned her upwards pointing ears towards the sounds coming from down the hill, realizing she had done it only after it was done, and listened to the sound of battle.

"I'm a DOG?" she finally managed to get out of her mouth as she realized that she understood the barks that came from the group of dogs she'd spotted before.

"We all are," Hauru's voice said and she turned to look at him, finding a slim built dog with raven black fur, pointed ears and a short, thick, hanging tail. The intense pale blue of his eyes stood out against the fur even more than they had against his hair. "But we don't have time to stand here gawking over it. Kairi, you decide what we should do."

Kairi put her nose to the air and sniffed at the wind, taking in all the information that it brought her about the battle downhill.

"We should get going. When we get there, we have to make them understand that we're friends, so if they give us any orders that aren't insane, we should go with it. I haven't fought like this with the keyblade before, but I'm guessing it'll come naturally once it gets to the point of fighting."

"Let's go then!" Astrid said, snapping her jaws together, feeling a bit more confident about herself as she noticed she had quite some strength in them to back up the teeth.

Kairi nodded and took the lead, sprinting off the cliff and landing gracefully on the ground just below it before she started running downhill, the snow whirling up at her paws and creating a cloud of white crystals in her trail. Astrid jumped after her with a war cry leaving her throat as she sailed through the air. She landed a bit further down than Kairi, but just as gracefully, and she took off in a speed that amazed herself. Hauru followed on his powerful paws, taking long leaps to come up to their sides, and as the three of them entered the battle field, they were running side to side, with Kairi running in the middle, only a nose-length before the others, looking the natural leader.

Before them were a large group of dogs, snarling and baring their fangs, attacking in formation and on commands from others, trying to get to the shadow spawned creatures that kept on rising up against them, no matter where they turned. The heartless in the area were all shaped somewhat like dogs, with frighteningly thin legs and sharp edged tails and antennas looking like horns sticking out from their heads where ears should have been. The glowing yellow eyes stood out in the darkness and made them look even more vicious, along with the sharp teeth-like edges of their open jaws as they jumped their victims.

A powerfully built light brown dog with small pointed ears and black spots marking his eyes called out an order of retreat to a group of dogs close to him and the group did as told, only to discover that the enemy had snuck up on them from behind, slithering across the ground like the shadows that they were.

Kairi decided that the dog giving orders was the one to face and headed for him, followed by her companions.

"We can help!" she called out as soon as she saw that the dog had noticed them. He seemed to have a moment's thought about accepting her offer, while he shoved away one of the heartless dogs as it jumped at him.

"If you think you can be of help, then fine by me, but don't get in the way!" he called back to her, and Kairi didn't waste any time on being polite. Instead she turned towards the largest group of heartless and summoned the keyblade.

"Hauru, Astrid, do what you do best!" she called to her friends as Destiny's Embrace materialized between her jaws.

"Got it!" Astrid called back with a dog's grin and bashed head first into one of the bigger looking heartless right before it was about to jump a white and red long-haired dog that was doing his best to save one of his comrades from another attack.

Kairi went straight forward and took a high jump into the air, using her speed to put power behind the keyblade's strike as she drove it home into a large heartless taking a leap towards another group of dogs. As the blade went through, the beast dissolved in mid-air and Kairi landed on the ground in a sprint, taking no rest in sending more of the shadows the same way as their kin.

"Wow! How'd you do that?" a young male voice came from beside her as she rushed towards a fourth heartless with her blade at the ready.

"I'll tell you later," Kairi said, having a little trouble talking with her mouth occupied by the blade's handle. She took a quick glance at the dog running by her side. It really _was_ a young dog, not more than two years of age by her judgment. His fur was silver grey, with white around his eyes, jaws, throat and belly. His back was covered in faint tiger stripes and across his forehead he had three vicious looking scars from what seemed to be claws. The dog was small and thin, but his entire appearance still gave her a feeling of an immense inner strength hidden within the young heart.

Kairi attacked the heartless she had aimed for, spun around and made short business of another group of three smaller ones, all the while having the silver furred pup by her side, distracting the heartless and somehow managing to keep other shadows off her back as she moved in on yet another group of the beasts. She had to admit that he was surprisingly fast and for some reason he had taken to staying by her side, and she didn't complain.

Hauru ran in what looked like a series of almost floating dance moves, in and out in the lines of the heartless, weaving his magic as he went. When he stopped, he spun around and finished the spell, making a golden net appear in the lines of his movements, preventing the heartless from moving.

"Kairi!" he called out with a strong voice that carried over the sounds of battle and Kairi turned to the sound. Seeing the trapped shadows and understanding Hauru's message, she took off towards the prey, her keyblade glowing stronger by each leap she took. She finally jumped and threw her blade spinning in the air, just like she'd seen Sora do, and it swept like a boomerang over the heartless, taking them all out in one swing, and returning to Kairi's jaws as she landed heavily on the ground.

Hauru had already done his weaving magic once more and Kairi repeated her move as soon as the new net was at work. Astrid shoved the heartless together, getting help from other dogs as soon as they caught up with what she was doing and why, making Hauru's job easier and more efficient.

Without having planned it, the group had worked as a team, as if they somehow understood each others' thoughts without having to call the plan out. In almost no time at all, which felt like a number of hours, Kairi and her friends had managed to wipe out the intruders completely and the dogs they had helped were doing their best to try and understand just what had happened to them all.

Panting from the effort of having fought so intensely, Kairi turned to the silver furred dog that was still by her side. She let the keyblade disappear and stretched her jaws a bit before she talked.

"Thanks for the help, kid!" she said with a grateful grin, wagging her tail slightly to show him that she really meant it. "You're quite a fighter!"

"Thank you," he said, a bit uncertain of what to say. "B-but I didn't do that much, really."

"Well, if it weren't for you, I would probably have been jumped a number of times while I fought, so don't go say you didn't do anything!" Kairi corrected him and huffed. "I'm Kairi, by the way. And my friends here," she said and made an inclination of her head towards Astrid and Hauru who were just coming up close to her, "are Astrid and Hauru."

The silver furred dog greeted the two friends with a slight wag of his tail and a short bow of his head.

"I'm glad to meet you! I'm Gin, and like many other dogs here, I've run away from my human's home in order to join the great pack in a fight against the wild bears of this area. We were on our way to recruit more dogs for the cause, when these…_things_ showed up and attacked us. I've never seen anything like them before. Do you know what they are?"

"They're called heartless," Hauru said, sitting himself down in front of Gin and Kairi. Astrid stood with her ears perked and her tail wagging eagerly from side to side. She hadn't been in a real fight for such a long time that this little battle had invigorated her rather than making her tired, almost wishing she had something more to fight.

"They're kind of like made up of shadows. That's why they're so hard to kill," she said as she looked around herself in hope of finding a stray heartless to smash to the ground.

"The only thing that can truly beat them, is the keyblade," Kairi continued as she followed Hauru's example and sat down.

"That's the weapon you were using, right?" Gin asked her and she nodded.

Suddenly a shadow appeared from behind her, and Kairi quickly rose to her paws and turned around to face whoever it was that was standing there, and met with the stern look of the light brown dog she had seen giving orders earlier.

"You've got quite some skill there, stranger," the dog noted and Kairi forced herself to stay calm as she looked up and into his eyes. He was pretty big. And he smelled of superiority in a way that couldn't be denied even by an outsider like herself.

He looked at her two companions, and Hauru stood up as well, taking a small, but very clearly marking step towards Kairi, telling with his entire body language that he was going to protect her no matter what. Astrid, who had stopped her eager tail-wagging as soon as she'd spotted the leader dog, had done the same, almost simultaneously as Hauru. The brown dog blinked, then let out a short and hearty laugh.

"Your friends aren't half bad either, and I see that they're quite fond of you as well. Don't worry; I won't harm any of you. You helped us out and you proved to be good fighters as well, working as a team and even managing to get my pack members to work with you quite efficiently. For that, you have my gratitude and my respect."

"Ben, maybe they can join the pack?" Gin suddenly said, walking up to stand in front of the brown dog. "They are strong fighters and they do know how to work in a team, you said so yourself! And if those creatures should come back, we could need their help to get rid of them."

Ben looked at Gin, then at Kairi, and back again, making the connections in his mind.

"I see. You do have a good point in what you say, Gin, but you're forgetting your place. You don't have the right to decide who goes with us and who doesn't. Besides, they'll have to join our pack voluntarily, we can't force anyone to fight for us or we'll just end up having to fight our own comrades after a while."

Gin backed off a few steps, looking a bit ashamed as Ben pointed this out to him.

" I… I guess you're right. I was just… thinking that they could be a good addition to the pack, that's all."

"Addition to the pack?" the white and red dog that Astrid had saved as she'd entered the battle said in a somewhat doubting tone of voice. "Maybe that black one, but the other two? They're _females_! "

Astrid let out a short growl at this, towering over the speaker and making him take a step back.

"This _female_ saved your life, buddy!" she grumbled, but stayed put, pleased to see the effect her act had had on the other dog.

Ben laughed heartedly and some of the other nearby dogs joined in.

"Smith, you should know better by now than to judge a fighter by their gender, or size for that matter," he said, one sideways glance at Gin at the last words.

A grey and slender dog with semi long fur stepped forward and pushed Smith out of balance from the side as she passed him and gave him a vicious grin.

"Don't tell me you're still being a jerk, Smith?" she said and gave Kairi and the others a welcoming dog smile, wagging her tail and tilting her head slightly to the side. "Don't mind him; he just can't take being beaten at something. I'm Cross, and up until now, I've been the only female in the pack, but I welcome you openheartedly to join if you wish."

"Nah, it's alright," Kairi replied in the same friendly manner. "I can sense that he's a good guy deep down. My name's Kairi, and this is Astrid and Hauru," she continued and nodded towards her companions as she mentioned their names. "We're here to fight those monsters that attacked you, and the likes of them, called heartless. We really don't mean to intrude on your territory or to make any claims to become part of your pack," she said and turned to Ben, figuring he was the main leader of the pack. "We simply mean to help out and joining you would probably be a good way for us to get around and learn to know the land here," Kairi admitted and lowered her head as she spoke, making it clear to anyone watching or listening that she didn't intend to fight for the leadership. "But we will not join the pack permanently, nor will we do it if you don't wish us to do so. Our mission forces us to be on the move, therefore we can't stay or join your causes if it interferes with our mission."

Astrid let out a muffled snort, but said nothing. She and Hauru stayed in their positions, their eyes focused on the dogs in front of them and their ears slightly turned backwards in order to keep the dogs behind them under surveillance as well.

Ben bowed his head somewhat to Kairi.

"I admit that you know how to put your words, young lady. You may stay with the pack for as long as you wish, under the terms that you don't do anything to harm our goals and that you listen to the commands given by either me, Smith or Great," he said slowly and steadfast, giving a small nod towards Smith and a greenish sand colored dog of quite a massive size that came up on his other side as he spoke. "We are the commanders of each of the three platoons of this pack."

Astrid smirked and gave Smith a degrading look.

"He's a commander?" she muttered with deep sarcasm in her voice, but Hauru gave her an evil look that warned her of continuing, so she didn't finish her planned out mockery of the slightly smaller Smith.

Kairi ignored the fuzz her friend made and kept her attention at what Ben had said.

"Then we are glad to make you company for a while and thank you for your offer," she said with a steady voice.

Ben decided they should all take a short break to rest their paws and catch their breaths before moving on and Kairi and her little group took a chance to get some time to themselves, lying down close to each other a little bit away from the rest of the pack.

"Kairi, where in the whole wide world did you ever learn how to speak like that?" Astrid asked her, the features of her dog face telling clearly of her surprise and admiration. "You spoke as if you were a borne chief!"

Hauru smirked at the comparison, but he didn't say anything. He had been quite surprised himself by her act. She had looked and sounded like a natural leader, despite her young age and otherwise so weak appearance. In her dog form she did look a bit more intimidating than she did as her usual human self, but still, she was quite a small dog in comparison to most of the males, including himself.

Kairi made a dog version of a shrug of her shoulders and rested her head on her front paws.

"I guess it comes natural to me, since I'm a princess…" she mumbled and closed her eyes to rest. She was tired after the battle and with Ben's orders of a long run after the short break in mind, she wanted to rest up as good as she could before the call for leave was given.

"You're a _what_?" Astrid and Hauru burst out simultaneously, and Kairi sighed. She guessed her rest wasn't going to be as good as she had wished for and slowly started to explain.

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><p><em>Ok, first off, the world entered is that of the anime-series "Ginga Nagareboshi-Gin", or as it was called in Swedish television; "Silver Fang". I'm using the japaneese original name for the main character, Gin, simply because I have no clue what he is called in the americanenglish version, and in swedish he's simply called Silver. There, explanation done. Anyone remembering the series? I love it and recently got my hands on the full-legnth un-cut series in japaneese with english subs, inspiring me to add this world to the story. ^^ I also wanted to make the gang turn into dogs. Animal transformations are sort of a big thing for me. ;) Now off to more adventures! /Silverspegel_


	20. Part 2: chapter 4 Whiskers

**_Author's notes: _**_Hey there! Sorry for the delay, I've been having a shitload of trouble with my internet connection and then the summer kicked in and shoved me out-doors... Anyways, here's a bunch of chapters in one update, as compensation. ;) Also, I want to tell you all that if you wish to check out illustrations for the fic (not very elobrate stuff, but still), you can check out my Deviant Art-page: where the fic is displayed as well, together with some upcoming contests. ;) Now, please, read and enjoy. ^^ /Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>Chapter 4:2: Whiskers<strong>

"_If you find yourself troubled, by something mysterious or a problem that's hard to solve, there's a place you can go…" _(Intro from _The Cat Returns_)

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><p>Riku tried hard not to fall to his knees again as he fought the nausea that had taken a hold of him as soon as he had entered the world that waited on the other side of the Stargate. He was freezing like never before, and still he knew the air around him at the moment was at a perfect temperature of a sun heated summer's day. Once he felt a bit more stabilized, he dared to open his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm the inner turmoil of his body. Being dematerialized was obviously not a thing to take lightly… Then he really saw his surroundings and gaped at the scenery.<p>

Endless soft hills of softly waving silken grass in a pastel green color that he had only thought to be possible in paintings. Above the fields was a perfectly blue sky, dotted with cotton ball clouds, slowly drifting in an invisible breeze that every now and then seemed to caress the sea of grass before him, creating waves of light as each straw bent down and rose back up. At the center of the sky was a golden sun, giving off a most pleasing heat, making Riku think of the best days of summer at the beaches of Destiny Islands.

He looked behind himself and realized that the gate he had passed through was standing in the middle of a partly overgrown clearing, at the very brink of what seemed to be a large forest. The Stargate looked pretty much the same as the one he had entered in the old warehouse, only this one wasn't hooked up to a number of wires and all the plants that had taken residence in every crack and small crevice of the machine made it look a whole lot older and more ancient than the one that Donatello had polished up. There were a number of upright rocks, evenly spaced in a circle that surrounded the portal. Straight in front of it was a larger rock, looking like a cut off pillar with a metal disc placed upon it. Riku went over to it and discovered that there were symbols drawn on the plate, the same ones as was written on the different sections of the inner circle of the Stargate portal. In the center of it all was a fist-sized hole, as if it was meant for someone to put something there.

Riku scratched his head as he tried to remember the information Donatello had given him about the gate and how it was supposed to work, although he couldn't recall anything about something looking like this…

At that moment, the still active gate's water like membrane shivered and Donatello came out in a slightly brutal looking forward roll, followed shortly by Hermione, who landed hard on arms and knees in the grassless area closest to the portal.

"What took you so long?" Riku asked with a slight touch of humor in his voice, hiding his relief and joy to see them following him, as he went over to give Donatello some help getting back up on his feet without falling over from the dizziness.

"Holy Einstein! That was interesting…" Donatello said as he regained his balance, put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath and recover from the chills that the trip had left him with.

Riku got over to Hermione and helped her up as well. The young witch had a somewhat pale color in her face and she looked more or less like she wanted to throw up, gripping Riku's offered hand hard as she focused on getting her mind around the problem of standing up.

"Are you ok?" Riku asked her, a bit worried about her paleness and the way her body was shaking.

"I'm…fine… just…need…to…breathe… for a moment," she replied slowly, pronouncing every word with care. She had experienced the nauseating effects of _disapperation_ before, but it was nothing compared to this.

It took a while for both of Riku's friends to recover, just as it had done for him, and when they finally could stand straight, the portal had closed behind them, leaving the Stargate looking like nothing more than an old ruin of some sort.

Donatello looked at the Stargate with the curious eyes of a scientist and mumbled to himself about the extraordinary construction, while Hermione only had eyes for the seemingly endless fields ahead.

"Wow," she breathed out as she admired the landscape. "This is beautiful! But… sort of empty, don't you think?"

Riku nodded. He had noticed the same thing. This Stargate seemed to have been placed in the middle of nowhere, civilization nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Don," he called out for the turtle, and Donatello turned towards him askance.

"Yeah?"

"Take a look at this." He showed Donatello the pillar with the metal disc and the hole in the middle and the turtle made a face that worried Riku as he let his fingers trace the symbols on the disc.

"You see this hole here?"Donatello said after a moment's thought.

"Yeah, what about it?" Riku asked worriedly.

"There's supposed to be a sort of rock there, a crystal if you may. The computer back at the warehouse had some information about the calling system of gates without computers hooked up to them. This is the regular system of planning out the journey through the gate. You push these symbols in a certain order, to make a sort of 'phone call' to a responding gate somewhere out there in the universe. But you need the jewel in order for it to function."

"Do you mean to say that we're trapped here as long as we don't find that thing?" Hermione started to look pale once more as she asked him this and Riku was a bit worried that she might faint, and readied himself to grab her, should she fall.

"I'm afraid so," Donatello said with a shrug, but he didn't seem all too worried. "But the jewel can't be too far away. I mean, sure this thing looks like it's been abandoned for ages, but that would mean that anyone wanting to take the stone can't live too far away from this place, seeing as it's quite a walk out into the wilderness."

Hermione shook her head at his easy going logic.

"It could just as well mean that the thing is destroyed, or lost or sold off to have left this very region of whatever planet it is that we've landed on!" she muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose in a try to stop the oncoming headache she was sensing.

"Yeah, that too," Donatello admitted gloomily.

Riku looked from one to the other, then gazed out into the open field.

"Well," he said after a moment of silent consideration," we might as well try looking for it while we explore this place. Since we're here, we better make the best of this visit. The faster we get through the grass fields, the faster we can find a way to solve this problem."

"And what if we can't find our way back?" Hermione asked him wittingly.

"We'll just have to ask someone who'll know how to find the place, right? I'm sure there has to be some sort of map if we get to a village or a city or something like it. Besides, if the jewel was stolen within a reasonable time range, the thief might still be having it in his possession, and then we could always make him point out the direction back."

Hermione mumbled something incohersive, but gave him an approving nod anyway, figuring they should at least try to do something about it all. Donatello took a look at the landscape as well, pondering a small problem that he had come to think of.

"One thing," he said slowly and turned to his two friends. "I'm not exactly a normal appearance even in my own world," he continued and made a gesture to his body, knocking his chest shell for effect. "We don't know what this world's inhabitants may look like, but at least I would feel a whole lot more confident in meeting them if I looked a little less…hrm…shall we say 'inhuman'?"

Riku and Hermione took a good look at their friend and realized that they'd both gotten pretty used to Donatello's looks, despite the short moment of time that they'd spent together. Hermione gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder and reached inside her cloak with her other hand, pulling out what looked like a polished wooden stick. Riku raised his eyebrows at the sight of this, and was about to ask her about it, when she interrupted him.

"Look, I'm a witch, as I told you. I can use magic, but it's easier if I have my wand," she said in a teaching manner and held up the wand in question. "Now, as to the matter of disguising you, Don, I don't know any long lasting spell that could literally transform you , but I do know a few tricks to hide at least part of your appearance."

"Really?" Donatello asked in surprise.

"It's quite simple really. _Producto_ _Amiculum_." She swayed her wand in front of her and in a second there was heard a slight 'poof' and in her outstretched hand, she suddenly held a long and wide hooded cloak. "It should be the right size, so just try it on."

Riku blinked as he tried to grasp what had happened, then he burst out laughing at the contradicting look of slight disappointment in Donatello's face and the proud grin in Hermione's. Donatello looked at him in a moment's confusion, then joined in, as did Hermione, once they understood what it was that seemed so funny to him.

"You really had me going there for a while, Hermione," Donatello said a while later as he walked beside her. The cloak fit him perfectly, but he had left the hood down for the moment, not wanting to get over-heated in the sun.

The witch smiled apologetically back at him.

"I'm sorry, already! I didn't think about it, I just said it the wrong way, that's all. A spell that would change your appearance would take quite some skill and time to produce, not to mention a number of odd ingredients for an elixir to work out, and I can't do it, at least not here and now. Last time I did something like it, it took a month to prepare and it still only lasted for an hour or so.

Donatello nodded.

"Yeah, you told me. And the cloak was a good idea. It's just that… well, I've always dreamt of being able to blend in and to not be so easily picked out from a crowd. Anonymity has its advantages, you know."

None of them said anything more for a while. They only walked on ahead, Riku going in front of them with his eyes set on the horizon and his mind occupied completely by the problem of figuring out what to do next, afraid to let his mind wander, lest he should come across memories he didn't want to linger on for now.

"You shouldn't be here!"

Riku blinked, then slowly came back from the dream he'd been having. His back was aching a bit from having slept on the ground for an hour or so and his feet were sore from all the walking. They had all walked for a long time, until all three of them felt the need to rest and had then more or less fallen where they were standing, deciding that sleep was the only thing to do right then.

"Wha- hrm, what?" he mumbled drowsily as he tried to clear his vision.

"You shouldn't be here! Humans shouldn't be here! You're in danger if you stay too long!" the voice repeated.

"Who? Wait, wait just a moment," Riku said and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"What's the matter?" Hermione mumbled as she got herself up in a sitting position, her eyes almost closed.

The stranger let out a gasp as she discovered Hermione.

"There are two of you? Oh, this isn't good, not good at all! Please, you must go back!"

"Who are you?" Riku asked with a slightly annoyed, but much more awake sound in his voice. "_Where_ are you?" he added as he tried to spot the speaker.

"Here," the voice came from a spot right in front of him and suddenly he saw a human sized white cat rise up from her hiding place in the high grass, a sight that more or less would have knocked him over with surprise, had he not still been a bit drowsy from waking up. Instead, he now sat straight as a rod and couldn't stop staring at the animal, eyes wide open.

The cat, wearing a pink bow around her neck, had gentle features and the kindest blue eyes Riku had ever seen on a cat. The fact that she was talking and standing upright in the manner that she was, wasn't half as surprising to him as her size, though.

"Woah! That's one _huge_ cat!" Hermione gasped as her eyes had finally cleared from the sleep. This awoke Donatello, who had been sleeping next to her, underneath his new cloak.

"What's all the fuzz about?" he asked, a bit grimly as he sat up. Luckily, his hood had gone up over his head during the hour of sleep, and this concealed his looks to the now even more worried looking cat in front of Riku.

"Three!" she burst out and wrung her paws together in distress. "Oh, what have they done now?" she mumbled. "How did you get here?"

Donatello was quick enough to realize he should keep his face hidden and hurried to get the cloak wrapped more tightly around himself, while avoiding to look straight at the one speaking.

"Uhm, we came through the Stargate in the forest," Riku said honestly as soon as he regained his ability to speak. "You know, the old ruins?" he added as she seemed to be a bit confused by this statement.

"Oh," she said, a sudden recognition visible in her eyes. "I didn't think those ruins could work as a door…"

"Excuse me, miss," Hermione said, interrupting the cat's thoughts for a moment. Apparently the shock of seeing a large talking cat had somewhat faded. "But would you mind telling us where we are and where we could possibly find a jewel that was taken from those ruins?"

The cat looked at her in silence for a moment as she thought of how to answer the question.

"Well, you're in the Kingdom of Cats, of course," she replied, a little hesitatingly. "And if you're talking about the Sky stone, I know where you could find it. But you mustn't go there! You must go back from where you came! Forget the stone! You must leave this place before it is too late!"

"What are you talking about, too late for what?" Hermione asked, a little annoyed with the riddling talk.

"For you to return and to find your selves again!" the cat replied, just as riddling as before.

"But we need that stone in order to even get back!" Riku protested and scratched at an itching point behind his ear.

"Oh, my…" the cat said, worry clear in her face now. "Then you must hurry! Come with me! It's already begun! You have to leave the Kingdom before 24 hours have passed or you won't be able to turn back!" She turned around and went down on all fours, taking off in a leaping sprint through the grass.

Riku, Hermione and Donatello all got to their feet as fast as they could, not quite understanding what the cat had been talking about, but understanding perfectly the need of not losing sight of her.


	21. Part 2: chapter 5 Family

**Chapter 5:2: Family**

"_Your friends are the family that you choose" (Old saying)_

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><p>Sora skidded to a halt almost simultaneously as Kenai stopped. They had ran the entire way from the battle ground to the outer brim of the forest in much shorter time than Sora would have thought possible, and they were all panting from the effort.<p>

They could see the small village only a short distance away from where they stood, but Kenai was for some reason not moving. He just stood there, staring at the huts and tents, as if he was trying to figure out what to do.

Luffy walked up to stand beside him and followed his eyes, curious to see what it was that the bear was looking at.

"Hey, is that the village? Cool!" he said as he spotted the tents. "What are we waiting for?"

Sora turned to Kenai with a troubled face.

"That's what I'm wondering too. Why did you stop, Kenai?"

The bear shook his head heavily as if he was trying to get rid of something inside, then looked back at Sora.

"Something's not right, Sora. Can't you feel it? It smells… bad. And the village should be filled with people at this time of the day, but I can't see any single one there. Can you?"

Sora sniffed in the air, and suddenly he sensed what he had missed before Kenai mentioned it. It was a faint smell of… darkness. He couldn't explain how he knew this, only that he _knew_ this smell, and it didn't bode well. And Kenai was right – the village seemed to be empty.

"Well, didn't Koda say he'd bring the help to you?" Will said in a try to find an explanation for the absence of people. "Maybe he's got them all out into the forest already?"

Kenai shook his head, slowly this time, and started to move towards the village.

"If he'd been able to actually find Denahi and make him understand what it was about, then perhaps he and some of the hunters would've come with Koda, but if so, we would have met them on our way here. Besides, that wouldn't have emptied the village like this. Something's not right."

"Denahi?" Luffy asked as he walked beside him.

"My brother," Kenai answered.

"Wait, you've got _two_ brothers?" Will asked, trying her best to keep up to the slightly bigger bears. She remembered Koda saying something about a "two-legged brother", but what it meant still confused her.

"I've got three, actually, if you count Koda. But Koda's not my brother by blood, only by heart. Denahi and Sidka are my brothers by blood. Though only Denahi still lives among the humans, while Sidka is among the spirits," Kenai explained while he walked, picking up speed as he went.

Luffy wrinkled his face in utter confusion and decided he simply wasn't meant to understand it all. Will, on the other hand, felt even more lost, but she figured that she'd understand it all in due time. Now wasn't the time to be telling long stories.

Sora suddenly stopped, making the others stop as well and turning to him in askance.

"Sora, why're you stopping now? We're just as good as inside the village now," Luffy asked.

Sora turned his small ears somewhat and a number of wrinkles appeared on the bridge of his snout as he smelled something foul in the air and snorted.

"Heartless," he said in a low growl. "And something else. We need to be careful guys."

"You're the boss," Luffy noted, his face set in a grim expression.

There was a buzzing of energy and a burst of light from behind them and as they looked to see what it was, they found that Will had transformed into the large red eagle that she had been earlier in their fight with the Gargant Bear heartless.

"I thought it best to change into something more powerful before it got too messy," she said as an answer to the boys' unpronounced question.

Sora gave her an approving nod and turned his attention back towards the village.

Suddenly there was a movement in front of them, and Kenai was the one who first realized what it was. Without wasting a minute standing still and thinking over what to do, he rushed forward.

"Koda!" he called out, his voice filled both with worry and relief as he hurried towards the cub, who'd stopped at the sound of his name.

"Kenai! Hurry, you need to get out of here, fast!" Koda yelled in panic and ran as fast as he could to meet his brother. "They're going to…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a snapping bowstring and one second later and arrow sliced through the air between the two bears, hitting the ground not far away from where Kenai had been only one moment before.

Kenai stopped dead in his tracks and turned his eyes towards the shooter, fear and incomprehension filling his eyes as he recognized him.

"Denahi… what…?"

"It's not him, Kenai! It's something inside him! The whole village has been attacked by demons! You have to run!" Koda screamed as he snapped out of the shock that the arrow's flight had put into him. He rushed forward and rammed his brother's leg to make him move.

This seemed to have effect, and now Kenai lifted Koda in the skin of his neck, carrying him between his teeth as he ran back towards Sora and the others, who were now coming towards him.

"We heard it!" Sora said as he passed Kenai. "And we'll do our best to set things right. Just get Koda and yourself out of here!"

"Don't hurt Denahi!" Kenai managed to call out and Luffy winked at him as he passed him.

"Don't worry. Sora knows what he's doing," he said with a smile.

From above the red eagle that was Will let out an echoing scream as she climbed higher up in the air.

Sora called forth the keyblade and slowed his steps, walking carefully through the village. Every hair on his body was standing upright and his nose was filled with the sharp stench of darkness that he knew belonged to the heartless, but everything was calm and quiet. Not even the one who'd shot the arrow at Kenai seemed to be around. But Sora knew they were there, lurking in the shadows, waiting for him to get to the spot where they wanted him to be, knowing in turn that he was dangerous to them.

Luffy got himself close to Sora, letting his eyes sweep the surroundings just as Sora did, looking into every shadow as they slowly walked among the homes of the villagers who'd been living here up to now.

"I don't like this, Sora. They're setting a trap," Luffy muttered.

"I know, Luffy. But I'm not that easy to trap," Sora replied.

The snap of a bowstring was once more heard from the shadows to their left and Sora jumped out of the way right before the arrow hit the spot where he would have been, had he not moved in time.

"Show yourself!" Sora cried out as he charged the keyblade with energy, preparing an attack.

Another arrow came flying towards him, but this time from the opposite direction, almost taking him off guard. He escaped with a small scratch on the side of his right thigh. This arrow didn't stay in the ground though, but disappeared in a flash a moment after it hit.

"Uuhh, Sora," Luffy said slowly. "The heartless have arrows and bows… "

Sora spun around and saw that Luffy was right. Heartless were now slowly filling up the space between them and the forest, and they looked different from the ordinary Shadows in that they wore loose skin pants and while some were long and skinny, others were a bit shorter and fat. The long and skinny ones carried long, black bows with strings that seemed to be made of some sort of dark material that didn't make any sound. The fat ones carried black arrows in a quiver hanging on their backs in a wide belt that went across their torsos.

As Sora looked on, one of the fat arrow carriers allied with one of the tall archers and the tall one drew an arrow, put it to its bow and sent the arrow flying, all in a move so fast that it was hard to actually spot it. The arrow missed him, but it was close.

"Ok, we need to take out both of them or they'll just keep on coming," Sora said as he tried to plan out his moves. "Luffy, get them together!"

"Ay,ay," Luffy said with a smile and got up on his hind legs. "Get ready for some ass-kicking!"

Luffy stretched his arms and swooped them forward, taking with him a large mass of the heartless and gathering them all in one big pile in front of him, before he let himself be pulled towards them by the back pull of his outstretched arms. This made him ram into the pile of confused heartless headfirst, bashing them up even more.

Sora sent the keyblade flying, taking out the bunch as he passed it. As soon as the keyblade was back between his teeth, Sora charged it again, knowing he had to be ready to do the next attack.

A crackling of lightning was heard and a brief second later Sora smelled burnt sand and hot rock behind him. Will swooped down and sent out another blast at one paired up heartless team, turning them to cinder.

"Watch your back, Sora!" she yelled at him and Sora immediately turned back around, just in time to avoid getting hit by a large spear that was thrown his way.

He sent out the keyblade on another Strike Raid towards the new pile of heartless that Luffy had gathered and ran towards the assailant.

The Kingdom key returned just in time for him to block another spear that was sent his way.

"Denahi!" he called out, hoping he was right in his assumptions and that the man would stop for a moment as he heard his name, but he only kept on running ahead, away from Sora.

Then it hit him: he was a bear. A _bear._ Humans usually don't understand bear-talk.

He gave up calling on him and decided to simply hunt him down and find out just what was controlling the man.

Sora let the keyblade disappear and picked up his speed, gaining on the man with each powerful leap he made. It made him feel quite lucky that he hadn't faced a bear himself, seeing how fast he actually was.

Denahi ran towards a large cave in the mountain wall that sheltered the village from the sea winds and cut it off from the world behind it. Sora followed him without hesitation and soon Denahi faced a dead end, as the cave was quite shallow.

Slowing down to a halt, Sora walked into the cave and slowly got closer to Denahi, who turned around to face him. The man looked as if he'd gone mad. His eyes were wide open and his general facial expression strained. The black hair stood out in bushy ruffles around his head and his clothes were torn. Sora's attention, though, was drawn to his chest, where there was a heartless crest pressed into his clothes, the brims bristling with dark energy as the crest polluted its host.

Sora summoned the keyblade and was going to aim it at the crest, when the man rushed into him and by the act of surprising him, managed to put Sora off balance, resulting in him falling over on his side and dropping the Kingdom Key on the ground.

The bear quickly got back on his feet, but Denahi had found a spear and was now aiming it towards him, an evil grin on his face, as he got his foot over the keyblade and roughly shoved it backwards. Sora heard the clanking of the metal as it hit the rocky ground on its way down the slight slope that lead up to the cave.

He was trapped. He couldn't rise up, because that would make it easier for Denahi to hit him in the chest, and he couldn't back up, because the cave behind him would corner him. And if he rushed forward, Denahi would surely spear him, since there was no room for him to get past the man and the long spear from where he stood.

Gritting his teeth, Sora tried to make a move towards the man, hoping he could somehow scare him.

But the heartless possessing the man wasn't scared and Denahi didn't move a muscle.

Just as the man raised his spear to attack, he was hit from behind by a crackling pink light and fell to the ground, seemingly unconscious and Sora hurried to get the spear out of his reach.

"You really shouldn't run off on your own like that, Sora," Will said as she landed beside him.

"I know, Will, I just thought I could take him before he had me cornered," Sora said and closed his eyes for a moment of concentration as he called for the keyblade. The weapon materialized between his teeth and he used one of his big bear paws to turn Denahi over on his back.

The heartless crest still glowed viciously with a dark purple light.

"What in the…" mumbled Will in surprise as she saw it.

Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at the crest, focused and soon the keyblade glowed with a warm golden light.

"Release!" Sora called out and the light shot down as a beam into the crest on Denahi's chest.

A clicking sound was heard, as if a lock was turned and the crest disappeared.

Sora quickly backed off and let the keyblade vanish as he waited for the man to wake up. Will looked from Sora to Denahi and back again.

"Would you care to explain what you just did?" she asked Sora with a voice that told of both confusion and surprise. Sora shrugged.

"I just go with the flow. The keyblade knows what to do."

Denahi slowly opened his eyes and with a slight moan he got himself up into a sitting position, grabbing at his head with one of his hands.

"Ow, my head!" he muttered and looked around himself, not quite certain of how he got to where he was. When he saw the great eagle and the sand colored bear, he blinked in surprise.

"I don't think I've seen you guys before…" he said slowly with a soft voice, surprising both Sora and Will.

"Hey, guys, why are you up here when I was kicking butt down there?" Luffy's voice came from down the slope and soon the black bear was visible as he came slowly walking up to his friends.

Denahi raised his eyebrows even further as he saw the new bear.

"Who are you spirits, and why have you come?" he asked, uncertainty clear in his voice.

Sora looked at his friends in a hope to find a solution as to how he should be able to speak to the human.

The solution though, came on its own.

"Sora! Luffy! Will! Are you there?"

Sora turned and waved at Kenai.

"Over here! It's alright now, Kenai!"

When Denahi saw the third bear coming towards him, he recognized Kenai and got up on his feet, suddenly remembering what had happened and wishing to make sure that he hadn't hurt him.

"Kenai! So it wasn't a dream!" he called out as he rushed towards the bear and closed his arms around his wide neck. "Oh, dear brother, can you forgive me for what I have done?"

Kenai only patted him softly on his back, returning the hug and telling him in a wordless way that he understood.

"So, are the heartless gone now?"Luffy asked Sora.

"For the moment, yes," he replied and looked down at the village. "But this thing that happened to Denahi, it's not something I've seen before. Not like this. A heartless usually takes a heart from someone and that person turns into a heartless. With Denahi, it was rather as if he was infected with a heartless _parasite_. He had his heart intact, but the heartless controlled him, eating away at him as it made him do its bidding. Kind of like a puppet on strings. The only time I've seen anything close to it, it was done by a man who had made himself a heartless when he tried to find a way to control the darkness." Sora shivered as he remembered the man he still thought of as Ansem. "He tried to take over my best friend, and used him against me. But that man's gone, now."

"So, who did it this time?" Luffy asked, fascinated by the story and eager to learn more about the enemy, and about Sora.

Sora shook his head.

"I wish I knew. Ansem is dead. I took care of him a long time ago. I even took care of his Nobody, the body shell that a heartless leaves behind when it's created from a person with a strong heart. So whoever it is this time, it's not Ansem. Besides, the control over the body was too weak to have been done by him."

"So what you're saying is, that we're facing an enemy you don't know?" Will concluded and Sora nodded.

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's the same pattern, but it's not him. It can't be."

"Unless he's immortal," Luffy added in thought and Sora looked at him with an un-amused face. "What?"

"Don't even _joke_ about a thing like that, ok?" Sora said with a grim voice and Luffy felt it best not to question him further on this matter at the moment.

"So, now what do we do?" Will asked and turned her head towards the village and the forest beyond it. "This place is beautiful, but if we're done here, shouldn't we try to get moving?"

"We're not done just yet," Sora said slowly. He could sense a faint electricity in the air around them and tried to make out where it came from. He knew he had sensed something like it before. He slowly walked up to the cave, and felt the sensation growing stronger, suddenly knowing what it was.

The others followed him, curious of what it was that he was doing. Even Kenai picked up on the tense atmosphere and walked up to Luffy, followed by Denahi and Koda, who'd come up to the cave while Sora had talked with the others.

"What's happening? What is he doing? Is it another enemy?" Kenai asked the black bear, but Luffy only shook his head.

"Beats me, but he acts pretty weird sometimes."

"Hey, who's the bird?" Koda asked, not having seen Will transform.

Will looked down at him from where she sat on Luffy's back.

"Oh, let's just say that I know you from before."

Koda was about to ask something more, when Sora beat him to it.

"Kenai, what is this place?"

"The cave? It's our ancestral ground. Every year, when someone reaches their adult age, we gather here to have the ritual of totems. Each person gets his or her totem from the spirits, telling us of which way to pick for our future lives to follow."

Sora nodded as if he understood and walked inside, finding that the walls of the cave were covered in handprints of varying color. But one handprint stood out from the rest, showing a bear's paw enclosing the hand.

A sudden burst of light appeared over the handprint as Sora stood in front of it, and a keyhole materialized on the wall.

The keyblade was between Sora's teeth before he even had begun to call for it and with a turning movement, the lock was sealed and the keyhole disappeared in a flash of light.

Kenai, Koda and Denahi blinked to get the blinding light out of their eyes, and found that in the place of the two bears and the eagle, there stood three humans.

"We're… we're back to normal? But how?" Will asked in amazement as she looked at her hands in surprise, finding that she was once more the small school girl, and not the magical guardian.

"Aaww, I miss my claws," Luffy said with disappointment as he too looked down on his hands.

Sora gave them both a bleak smile.

"Well, I guess this means that we're off duty. Time to move on."

"Who… Who are you?" Denahi asked in wonder and all three turned to look at the stunned spectators.

Sora sighed and did his best to explain.

"I'm Sora. This is Luffy, and this here is Will. We were brought here to help you get rid of the heartless, those demons that attacked you. Now that I've sealed this place from them, you should be safe, and we must move on to others who need our help."

"I see," Denahi said in thought, and Sora realized that the man actually seemed to understand. "So, what about the others in the village, the ones that were attacked, will they come back?"

A sudden aching at Sora's heart made him flinch, but he was quick to hide the expression of sorrow in his face, putting on a smile and nodding.

"Yes, eventually. When the source of the evil is defeated, all who have been taken will come back. I'll see to it, Denahi."

Denahi smiled gratefully at him and Sora suddenly found himself in a close hug.

"Thank you, Sora. And thank you for helping my brother. The spirits are wise to guide you in this journey, and if you ever need my help, let me know."

"Sure thing," Sora mumbled, trying hard not to let the pain in his heart be heard in his voice. So many people had suffered, because he was too late. How would he ever be able to make up for the pain he'd caused? Why did this have to happen again? Why? The questions and accusations mingled inside his head as he fought to keep his mind clear from the negativity they caused.

Suddenly he felt a crushing strength enclose him from behind, realizing that Kenai gave him a hug as well. The bear was however considerably stronger than his human brother and even the light hug given felt like a bone crusher.

"Th-thanks, Kenai, I guess," Sora huffed out as the bear let go of him.

Kenai snorted fondly and gave him a slight bow of his head.

"We will pray for you all and hope for your safe return," Denahi said as they all parted about two hours later. The trio had been treated to a meal of grilled fish and salty bread and had even been given a filled up leather water bottle each, and got some scraps of food to take with them, despite their first refusal to do so.

"Oh, and Sora, before you leave," Denahi reached down into his pocket and got out what looked like a piece of polished white bone in the shape of a claw attached to a leather thong. On the claw, Sora could see a carving of something that looked very much like a bear. "I found this in the hut of the medicine woman, and for some reason, I felt like it belonged to you, like it's your totem. Do you know what it's for?"

Sora took hold of the piece of bone and immediately felt warmth spread in his hand.

He nodded and slipped the gift into one of the big red pockets attached to his pants.

"I know just how to use it. Thank you, Denahi."

Denahi put his hand on Sora's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"I am the one who should thank you for saving us. Remember that you're part of our family now, brother. Be sure to return safely one day and don't hesitate to ask for our help. Brothers should always take care of each other."

Kenai huffed in agreement from behind his human brother and Sora blinked in confusion as the message sunk in.

"But, I'm not…"

"This totem is yours and it binds you to us as family, Sora. You look after us and we look after you. Family doesn't have to be about blood relations. A family is a group of people bound to one another through their hearts and inner most beings. Kenai taught me this. He became part of Koda's family simply by listening to his heart. Just like he belongs both to the bears and to our tribe, you belong to our family as well."

Sora closed his eyes and felt his heart almost skip a beat at the overwhelming feeling of strength that suddenly enclosed him by Denahi's words.

"Thank you, Denahi…brother," he said slowly as he opened his eyes.

Denahi gave him an approving nod.

"Go now, brother, and be sure to return."

"I will," Sora said, and added silently in his mind _at least in my heart,_a bit saddened by the fact that he probably wouldn't ever see this world again.

And with a last farewell, the keybearer and his two companions left the village and wandered into the woods. Once they were sure of not being seen by anyone, Will brought forth the Heart of Kandrakar and made a new opening in the air.

"So, Sora, will you do the honors?" Will said, gesturing towards the bright light.

Sora didn't say anything. He took a last look at the world they were leaving, imprinting it into his memory, and then turned around and walked ahead of the others into the next world.

The moment Sora stepped through the opening to the other side, he knew something was wrong. All his senses tingled with warning, telling him to get ready to fight and to do it fast. He called forth the keyblade, attaching the new keychain as he went and saw the new shape develop as he entered the new world. The hilt and blade was a polished wooden staff, with a set of five thick, long bone needles at the end of the blade, tied together with a leather thong. What looked like a bent bow with a stretched out bowstring formed the frame of the hilt, with a small line of brown fur between the bow and the rest of the blade. The hilt was clad in a long strip of soft hide that felt good in his hand, making the grip a whole lot more comfortable than the cold iron of the Kingdom Key hilt with its sharp edges of the crisscross pattern imprinted in it.

He didn't have any time to think about the new look of his weapon though, because as soon as he entered the new place, he fell downwards through a shaft of some sort, hitting the bottom of it hard. Rising to his feet to warn his friends about the first high step, he barely got out of the way before Luffy crashed into the ground beside him. Will had the opportunity of being able to use her wings, reacting just in time to land softly beside the boys as the fold she'd created closed itself above their heads.

"Is this an old well?" Will mumbled in surprise as she looked up towards a distant sky that was visible beyond the opening that was placed some ways above their heads.


	22. Part 2: chapter 6 Keep on fighting

**Chapter 6:2: Keep on fighting**

"_Wounds, which the day has breached, heals, when night is in./Calm, calm I rest my head/ Against a holy sight, your lingering memory…" (_Karin Boye_, Saved, _roughly translated from Swedish)

* * *

><p>"<em>If I just keep looking towards the light over there, I'll be alright! That light will save me!"<em>

_As she ran towards the bright spot in the distance, the world around Kairi grew darker and shadows started to grow from beneath her feet and from the corners of her eyes. _

"_Sora! Help me!" she called out to the light, and now she saw him. It was Sora, inside that light, reaching out his hands for her._

_Suddenly, she realized that it wasn't she who was running towards the light, but Sora who ran towards her, while her feet in fact wasn't moving at all. He reached out for her, swung his keyblade at the shadows and freed her from their grasp. For one fleeting moment of happiness Kairi found herself in his embrace and took in the sense of his warm body pressed against hers, the smell of him close to her. She wrapped her arms around him in order to never let him get away from her again._

"_I'm not letting you go now. I've found you!" she whispered, feeling tears of happiness trailing down her cheeks as she heard his heartbeat against her ear. _

_But suddenly the comforting steady rhythm of the heart was interrupted and she looked up at Sora's face in fear. He looked down at her with a surprised and hurt expression, his face paling and the life in his eyes slowly disappearing._

"_NO!" she screamed, holding him tighter in her arms, refusing to let go, but it was too late. A heartless had taken him, had reached out from behind his back and got to his heart through his back. She felt as if her heart was going to break into a thousand pieces as she watched Sora dissolve into sparkling orbs of light, repeating a scene she had wished to never see again._

Kairi woke up with the scream trapped in her throat, shivers travelling through her entire body and every muscle twitching from the impulses sent through them while she had been dreaming. She felt like she had been running and fighting all night, exhausted and worn out and almost not recognizing where she was, until she spotted the sleeping figures of the dogs that were Astrid and Hauru.

Slowly she took in a deep breath and as the chilling mountain air filled her lungs, she felt her heartbeat slow down into a more comfortable rhythm.

"Nightmares?"

She turned her head to look at the one who'd been speaking and found herself being surprised to see the silver coated pup stand close by.

"Gin? Yeah, I was having quite a bad dream."

Gin lowered his head for a moment, then looked her in the eyes. His brown eyes were filled with something, a vast emotion or the glimmer of an old soul, giving them an entrancing depth that took Kairi by surprise.

"Who are you, really Kairi? And who's Sora?"

Kairi stared at him in stunned shock.

"How… what…"

Gin walked closer and laid himself down next to her, breaking their eye contact as he put his head on his front paws.

"You called his name in your sleep and you seemed worried. It's someone you care for very much, right?"

Kairi found herself speechless and nodded as she tried to summon her wits enough to produce words. Who was this pup, anyway, asking such questions to someone he barely knew?

"You had a weapon when you fought before. I've seen other dogs use weapons to fight, but yours was different. It disappeared right after you stopped fighting. And your male friend over there used some kind of movements to make a trap out of what looked like light. That's not something I've seen before. You're not from around here and you're obviously not any ordinary dogs; that much I know from just looking at those facts. But what I want to know is what you're doing here. Those monsters, nothing seemed to work against them, until you guys came. So who are you and what do you know about those monsters?"

Kairi blinked, then let out a long sigh.

"That's a lot of questions in one take, Gin," she said and Gin showed her a slight grin.

"Sorry. You don't have to answer any of them if you don't want to. I just wanted to ask you, because, when you showed up, I felt something inside my chest telling me that I should trust you and help you. It's almost like when I first met this pack; my heart tells me that my destiny is to be right here and to follow this track wherever it might lead me. And it tells me to stay close to you for as long as you're here."

Thinking about something that Sora had once told her about the connections that he made with the key persons of each world that he'd visited and remembering the bond she herself had felt to the other princesses of heart from the very first moment she'd seen them, Kairi nodded slowly. Her light as well as the powers of the keyblade, made it possible for her to reach out to the ones that could aid her, just as it showed her which ones to protect and trust.

"You're right in the fact that I'm not from around here, but it's not important where I come from. What's important is that I'm here to get rid of the monsters that attacked you. They are far from beaten by our efforts yesterday. And Hauru has his own secrets, but let's just leave it at a confirmation that he knows of how to use magic."

Gin didn't say anything. He just looked at her with his ears directed towards the sound of her voice, peaked and eager not to miss a single word.

"As for Sora…" Kairi paused. Should she tell him all of it or just leave it be? She longed to share her heartache and inner doubts with someone, but she didn't know whether she really should. Who was she to push her problems over onto someone else?

"Let me guess, the monsters took him from you?" Gin said in a low voice, compassion clear in his eyes.

Kairi gasped with surprise and nodded slowly.

"How did you know?"

Gin did the equivalent of a shrug of shoulders and looked away for a moment.

"Just a guess. You seem really determined to fight those things and you seem to be very attached to this Sora-guy. As I see it, the only reason for you not to be with him is that you're looking for him or fighting to protect him. Kind of like what I'm doing for Daisuki."

Kairi's ears peaked.

"Daisuki?"

"My human. He and his family are fighting to save their homes and lives from the monster bears that reign in these mountains. I joined this pack in order to protect him and keep him out of harm's way, helping the pack defeat the bears before the humans gather their forces to face them themselves."

"I see…" Kairi mumbled, finally starting to understand what the large gathering of strategically fighting dogs was all about.

"So, is Sora your human?"

The question caught Kairi a bit off guard and she felt her face heat up. Suddenly she was glad to have the fur cover up her flushed cheeks.

"Hrm, yes," she finally managed to say, figuring it would be the easiest way to go. "He means everything to me. He once saved me at the risk of his own life and now that he's in danger, I want to do all I can to save him back."

Gin seemed pleased with the answer and put his head down to rest on his paws again, this time more relaxed. Kairi looked at him in wonder. This young dog had a heart that was big and strong, open to take in anyone who offered him friendship and offering the same back to anyone willing to accept it. He was a whole lot stronger than he looked and she was certain now that this pup most probably was the reason for the heartless to have attacked the pack. They were after his heart. The stronger the heart, the more attractive it got, and by the looks of it, this dog had a heart just as true and strong as a keywielder.

The attack had come quick upon the large pack of dogs, just as they'd stopped to rest after a long day of running through the vast forest of the mountain area they were in. Kairi had felt the unease brought forth by the closeness of the darkness that the heartless brought with them and had barely had the time to summon the keyblade and call out a warning, before the first Shadow Dog appeared.

Soon the forest was filled with shadows and the pack was surrounded. Kairi took care to see to that she was close to Gin, who in turn seemed to keep himself close to her. Just like before, the two of them worked as a team, Gin keeping the shadows on the sides off her back while she took care of the ones in front of her.

Hauru and Astrid managed to repeat their success from the previous fight and got the other dogs to work with them by using only a few short commands. The pack had been quick to learn that there really was no other way to defeat these demons than to do as Kairi and her companions said. All had gone well, had it not been for the fact that this time the heartless came in way greater numbers than before and just when they thought they were about to finish them off, something else entered the fight.

"Kairi, look out!" Gin called desperately as he ran towards her and Kairi turned her head around just in time to see something huge and dark sweep down on her from above. She had no time to duck the attack, no way to escape it, and as it hit her she could see bright spots on the back of her eyelids. She barely realized that she was flying through the air, until she hit the snow covered ground hard with her back first. The impact forced all the air in her lungs out of her and she struggled to get it back as she scrambled back onto her feet, shaking her head to clear it from the dizziness that the hit to her head had caused her. She could see Gin rush towards her like a beam of light against all the darkness provided by the heartless, and she even caught a glimpse of Astrid's blond fur in the midst of the chaos, but Hauru's black coat was harder to spot.

Trying her best to get a grip on the situation, Kairi called the Destiny's Embrace back to her from where she'd dropped it during her involuntary flight through the air. As soon as she felt the grip of the keyblade back between her teeth, she spotted the thing that had hit her, and felt her heart sink.

It was a huge beast, larger than any animal she could remember ever having seen before in her life. The dark brown fur was ragged and stood on all ends, the color contrasting sharply against a wide stripe of blood red fur travelling all over the beast's back and up onto its head. Kairi blinked as she tried to grasp what it was she was seeing.

Hauru and Astrid still fought the heartless that remained on the battlefield, but the rest of the pack was concentrating their attacks on the monstrosity that now was in the middle of the chaos.

"Kairi! Are you alright?"

Shaking her head once more to clear her thoughts, Kairi looked at Gin as he skidded to a halt by her side.

"Gin, what is that thing?" she asked him, hearing the shiver of her bones transporting themselves into her voice.

"It's the monster bear I told you about before, the one we're gathering forces to fight and kill. His name's Akkakabuoto and he's gone completely mad from bloodlust and lack of hibernation after having been shot through the head some years ago."

Kairi took another look at the bear.

"Are you sure he's just mad? That's just about the largest bear I've ever seen! And there's something else about him…"

Gin nodded.

"I sense it too. Something's different from last time I met him. He seems… stronger…"

Kairi gasped as she realized what it was and started forward in a leaping sprint, quickly followed by a surprised Gin.

"What is it? You can't attack him alone! The pack can't even take him on in their numbers! All we can do now is keep him at bay and try to get away!" the silver coated pup called out after her as she picked up speed, just barely avoiding the limp body of a dead dog that was thrown by the bear in her direction.

"That bear is filled with dark energy! He's part heartless!" she called back and started to fill her keyblade with the magical light she had inside her. She was terrified of the thing in front of her, and she didn't even know if she would be able to do anything at all to it, let alone survive confronting it, but she knew that the weapon she held came with a responsibility to at least try her best. This beast was a thing of darkness now, and that made it her enemy. Sora had fought his way through enemies just like this one, she was sure of it, and she would not turn her back on this world just because she was scared.

She swallowed down all her fears and decided to leave them be for the moment and focus on the fight. For example, she needed to find out the weak spot of this thing if she was ever going to have even the slightest chance to beat it. From what Sora and Riku had told her, she knew all of the bigger heartless had a weak spot, a place on their body that was more vulnerable than the rest of it and thus the spot to focus your attacks on.

When she was close enough, Kairi released the Strike Raid onto the bear, hitting it straight in the chest. She got herself out of harm's way as fast as she could, catching her blade between her teeth as it returned to her.

Akkakabouto turned towards her with a blood-chilling roar, one eye aglow with the darkness that was eating away at him.

"Well, you certainly got his attention," Astrid huffed out as she came up on Kairi's left side. "Now what?"

"I have to find his weak spot!"

"Good luck!" Astrid replied. "In case you haven't noticed, that thing's HUGE!"

Gin, who now ran on Kairi's right side, snorted at the comment.

"Everybody knows that size doesn't matter. Besides, Akkakabouto's weak spot is no secret. He's only got one eye, which limits his vision. Once you get on his blind side, you're free to attack him. Bears are hard to kill, but they are the most sensitive around their head: the nose, the eyes, the throat. That's where you aim."

Kairi stopped in her tracks and spun around, keyblade at the ready as she confronted the raging bear that had taken up the hunt for them. She could see now that Gin was right – the bear was missing his right eye and at the moment she noticed this, Kairi jumped to get to the blind side of the beast as it ran past her, the other two jumping to the other side in the last moment. As expected the bear turned towards the two dogs that it could see moving about on its left side, momentarily forgetting about Kairi on his right side.

With the keyblade glowing from the magic poured into it, Kairi made her move, jumping as high up onto the bear as she could get and moved fast to climb up to its back, clinging to the thick coat with all her might. She felt nauseous from the stink of darkness and death that oozed from the bear, but kept going, knowing very well that the monster probably knew she was there now and only waited for her to get within biting or smashing distance.

Just as she thought the bear would attack her, it roared out with pain and reared up onto its hind legs. Having taken advantage of the bear's distraction when it noticed Kairi being on its back, Gin had taken his chance to jump and had gotten his teeth deeply into the bridge of Akkakabouto's nose. This had saved Kairi from being smacked down by the powerful paw of the bear, but as it had stood up to get rid of Gin, Kairi fell off its back.

Changing her tactics, Kairi went back towards the right side of the bear's head and tried desperately to find anything at all that could tell her of where the bear had its weakest spot, the center of all the darkness that flooded through its veins.

Astrid was running back and forth in front of the bear, keeping it in place by preventing it from moving forward and confusing it with quick turns. The other dogs of the pack were soon there to help her, surrounding the bear and attacking in turns, making it forget about Kairi as it twisted and turned to get rid of the dog on its nose and the ones barking at it from the sides.

Kairi sent the keyblade spinning, and it hit the bear straight on the throat from below, making it once more rear up on two feet, turning around towards her and as she caught the blade, the bear finally spotted her and roared out its rage.

That's when she saw it. It was like a ripple in the air, just above the beast's forehead, not far from where Gin was holding on to the nose. That was the spot she would have to hit.

Quickly she ran around the bear to its left side, forcing it to turn around to not lose sight of her again and she loaded her weapon once more with the magic from inside her heart, this time increasing the light as much as she could muster.

"Gin! Let go! Now!" she called out as she ran, circling the bear and making it to its right side once more, just before Gin let go and jumped off to the side, barely avoiding getting hit by the bear's paw as it tried to beat him down to the ground. At the moment the bear's paw struck the ground, its head was at its lowest point and Kairi took the opportunity to launch her attack, knowing she might not get another chance at a shot this clear.

She swung the keyblade in the air, forming a glowing trail in the shape of a crescent moon. She turned the motion around as she reached its peak and now the scythe that had been shaped out of the trail of light, hit the spot on Akkakabouto's forehead right on target with a burst of light that created a shockwave going out from the point of impact.

The darkness from inside the bear clashed violently with the light of Kairi's keyblade and the power of the impact reverberated through the weapon and into Kairi, who was thrown back by the mere force of it all. She landed hard on her side, snow cascading as her movement pushed it aside. Quickly she rolled over to get back on her feet as fast as possible, calling the keyblade back to her as she did so.

Akkakabouto took a sideways step towards her, rage glowing in his one eye and black tainted blood dripping from his jaws and the wounds he'd been dealt during the fight. The keyblade that had got itself stuck in his forehead dissolved itself and reappeared in Kairi's grasp a second later. Where the keyblade had been, there was a small heartless crest and as they all looked on in tense caution, the wound in the bear's forehead created a crack in the crest that seemed to rip the beast's head apart in one huge burst of darkness. The roar of the defeated monster rang as thunder through the air when the cloud of darkness left its body. All of the dogs on the battle ground got ready to attack the beast once more, and Kairi tensed her grip on the keyblade, expecting the original beast to still be intact once the darkness was gone from its body. But as the dark smoke dissolved and the air cleared, the bear was gone.

"It… it's gone?" Gin stuttered with disbelief.

"No," Hauru said as he walked up to Kairi. "The beast we fought was defeated, but the bear that it inhabited isn't dead, just removed for the moment."

Kairi looked at him with unease in her eyes.

"I don't like the sound of that, Hauru," she said and Astrid gave a single nod to show she agreed.

"Yeah, how do you know this?"

Hauru looked at them with his ice blue eyes and snorted.

"When it comes to dark magic, I most definitely know what I'm talking about. That bear was used as a vessel for the darkness that Kairi defeated. And a vessel that strong, you want to keep in store until you can use it again," he said, his voice just as chilling as the look in his eyes. "And believe me, whoever it is that's behind these attacks, knows this too. Unless we find a way to keep the heartless out of this world, we will most definitely face that beast again."

Kairi sunk down to lie on the ground, her paws stretched out in the snow in front of her. She was worn out in more ways than one, her magical reserve almost emptied by the use of it in the fight. She had poured every ounce of energy she had into the attacks and from what Hauru said, it still hadn't been enough to defeat the enemy completely. How was she ever going to be able to save Sora, if she couldn't even fight the heartless successfully?

"Kairi, are you alright?" Gin asked, worry clear in his voice as he walked up to her and put his nose to her forehead in a sign of care.

Kairi looked up at him and tried to sound more cheerful than she felt.

"I'm fine, Gin. I'm just very tired, that's all."

The other dogs of the pack was lying scattered over the place as well, breathing hard and trying to get some strength back into their bodies. The fight had been hard on all of them and Kairi's excuse seemed both true and believable, but Gin sensed that there was something more to her exhausted appearance than just the regular worn out muscles of someone who'd been working hard.

Suddenly Kairi's ears perked and the others all looked at her in askance.

"Can you hear that?"

Astrid, Hauru and Gin all tried hard to hear something, but shook their heads in unison as all they could hear was the sounds of the pack members breathing and the slowly returning sound of birds chirping in the trees.

Kairi shifted her ears to make sure where the sound came from, then slowly rose to her paws, following the sound of slightly clinking tunes, almost sounding like shards of glass softly brought together by a gentle breeze, very faint, but very much real to her.

The other three followed her, both worried and curious as to why she heard something they didn't.

Not far from where they were, they spotted a large stone partly covered by snow and some dead bushes. Kairi walked up to it and when she got around it, she stopped and her jaw dropped open at the sight that met her.

There, on the rough surface of the stone, was the keyhole to the heart of this world. It made no sense what so ever to her that it was there, all out in the open and with no connection that she could think of to what this world was about. But never the less, the keyhole was there, and she knew what it meant. She had to seal it away, so that this world would be safe from the heartless and they all could move on.

Just before she was about to summon the keyblade, she felt something that made her stop in her actions and she got back around the large stone, rejoining her three friends who were waiting on that side, not having been sure where she'd gone off to.

Hauru and Astrid instantly noticed the change in her.

"Kairi, what's wrong?" Astrid asked with worry, then Hauru seemed to sense it too, his body stiffening.

"Darkness… I think a portal has opened…" he mumbled and Kairi gave a quick nod, and walked passed them, summoning the keyblade as she went towards the place where she sensed the darkness pouring out into the world.

The others followed her without a word and as they got in among the trees, they suddenly spotted the dark portal as something or someone stepped out of it. It was a tall and slender figure clad in a black, hooded cloak and Kairi immediately felt a shiver down her spine, telling her that this was most definitely an enemy, and a strong one too.

But it wasn't a heartless, nor was it a nobody, but rather it seemed to be something in-between, like a dusk with a mind of its own or a heartless that still had the ability to act on its own accord and think clearly. She knew she had felt this kind of presence somewhere before and when she realized what it reminded her of, she gasped and took a step backwards. It reminded her of Ansem, the dark and twisted version that had been the heartless created by the same person who had appeared as a nobody in the shape of Xemnas. Although, this creature was far from being as powerful as Ansem had been.

"Who are you?" Kairi called out, readying her keyblade for an attack as the creature spun around, only now discovering the four dogs that came towards it. Kairi could see the gleam of large white teeth from underneath the hood as the creature seemed to smile at her.

"_Sssso, you have a key? You're the light one that essscaped me…"_ it hissed and took a step towards them. A pair of yellow eyes glowed from within the darkness of the hood. "_Give me the sssshard!_"

"What shard? What are you talking about?" Kairi asked, not taking her eyes off the creature as it took another step towards her. Suddenly it seemed to hesitate and it looked from Kairi to Gin and back to Kairi, a wordless hiss escaping it before it backed off again.

"_No ssshard… But you will come with me!"_ it said in a vicious tone of voice and before any of them had the time to notice how it was done, the creature was over Kairi, the two of them rolling in the snow as Kairi struggled to keep the attacker off, her keyblade having been dropped by the sudden jolt she'd got as the thing had pushed her off her paws.

In an instant Astrid was on the creature's back, her teeth sinking into the neck of it with a nasty growl escaping her throat as she forcefully threw the assailant off her friend. Gin was instantly there by Kairi's side and helped her get back on her paws, while Hauru got himself on top of the thing's chest, fangs bared and an enchantment muttered through his growl.

The creature threw the black dog off and got to its feet before the magic was finished and with a dark blast of energy it sent Hauru sailing through the air, landing hard on the ground some distance off.

"Hauru!" Kairi called out after the magician and then took aim on the creature who'd hurt him. She summoned the keyblade back into her grasp and charged it quickly before she sent it flying in a spin towards the creature. The Strike Raid hit its target full on, and as the keyblade returned to its wielder the enemy was quickly retreating towards the dark opening it had come through.

"_I don't have time for thisss. My massster will have you sssooner or later, just like the other keysss. I'll let you go for now."_

Kairi blinked. Other keys? Was it talking about the keyblade? Then the thought struck her and she felt panic rising in her chest together with a desperate need to find out more.

"Wait! You're talking about Riku and Sora? Where are they? What have you done to them? Answer me!" she yelled out after the creature, but it only sent her an evil grin, before it escaped through the opening.

Kairi ran towards the dark portal, but before she was able to reach it, it closed itself, leaving her stranded on the spot where it had been, with a thousand thoughts raging through her head. Thoughts of Sora, and of Riku and the insinuation that this creature had them captured somewhere.

"NO!" she roared out with all her heart, the despair and doubts and fears in her heart all put into that one outcry of disappointment of not having been able to find out more about her lost friends. She threw the keyblade off at a tree, hearing it break into the trunk with a dull thud before it disappeared into thin air.

Hauru limped up to her, his eyes sad and apologizing, his tail hanging low and his ears slightly lowered. Astrid just sat still behind her, silently waiting for her to come to her senses and tell her what to do. Somehow, she felt that Kairi was the one who had to decide those things.

The one who dared to break the silence first was Gin, walking up to Kairi and putting his nose softly to the side of her jaw, nudging for her to keep her chin up.

"Hey, I didn't quite follow what happened there, but you shouldn't let that creep win. Don't give up. If that's the one who took Sora from you, then you should follow him and make him give Sora back, not sit here and feel sorry for yourself. You've got to keep on training, keep on fighting until you're strong enough to beat your enemy. If you feel like running, then run. But don't run away: run towards the fight and don't give up until you win!"

Kairi looked at him with amazement and took a deep breath.

"You've got a lot of wisdom for someone so young, you know", she said slowly and gave him a dog's smile. "Thank you."

Gin leaned his head a little to the side, opening his mouth in a gesture of slight embarrassment, mixed with a little pride and wagged his tail.

"Ah, I guess that sometimes I just happen to know what to say, that's all."

Kairi shook her head at this comment and put a paw on his head, pushing him down slightly.

"Don't say that, Gin. You're a strong dog and with a heart as strong and great and yours I bet you'll grow into a perfect leader one day. Accept a compliment when you get one and quit excusing yourself, ok?"

Gin blinked in surprise, then backed away from her paw and smiled.

"I will. Thank you, Kairi. So, what are you going to do now?"

"We have to follow that creep," Astrid said firmly, her eyes glittering with a lust for revenge.

Kairi hummed a little at this then turned her head to Hauru, who was sitting silently by her side.

"Hauru, do you think we could find out where that thing went?"

The black dog looked at her with uncertain eyes, then sighed.

"I can give it a try, but I can't promise you I'll find the right way. Remember that my magic still is a bit unreliable."

"All we can do is try, Hauru. Sooner or later I believe we'll find the right way," Kairi said to him and buffed at his side to make him stand up. "Before we go, I have something left to do, though," she added and went out from the gathering of trees where they were and returned to the large stone where she'd spotted the keyhole.

She went in behind the bushes once more and got around the stone and there it was. The keyhole glittered with a silver framing, sparkling slightly and making that soft sound that first had caught her attention.

Kairi called forth her keyblade, pointed it towards the keyhole, and a thin beam of silver light connected the weapon to the opening in the stone. With a slight turning of the keyblade, a loud click was heard, like a lock being turned, and the keyhole was gone.

When she emerged from the bushes, the others were waiting for her.

"What did you do back there?" Astrid asked her curiously. "I heard something clicking and then it felt like a stone was lifted from my chest."

"Me too!" Gin said, looking from Astrid to Kairi, eager to get an explanation.

Kairi smiled.

"I locked out the heartless. Now they can't come back here and cause you any more trouble, Gin."

The silver coated dog looked at her in disbelief.

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be," Kairi replied.

The three travelers parted with the pack after a moment of rest, saying farewell to Gin before they took off back towards where they had entered this world. Gin, having trouble parting with his new friends, had tried to convince them all to stay a little longer, but Kairi had simply shook her head and told him that she had to move on to follow her own destiny, just as he was meant to follow his.

Just before they left, Gin ran up to Kairi and gave her something that looked to be a tiny star-shaped silver pendant, dangling from a stripe of black leather with silvery metal on each end of it, a small silver clasp hanging from the end opposite the star.

"I think this should go with you," he said as Kairi looked at him with the surprise apparent in her eyes. "I don't know really what it is, but something tells me that it belongs with you. Maybe it can be of help to that weapon of yours."

Kairi had accepted the gift and as soon as she'd taken it in her mouth, she had known what it was. A key-chain…

After yet another goodbye to their friends of the pack, the gang finally got on their way. Hauru knew the direction to go in, his magic setting a road for him to follow to the door they'd come through. Once they reached their goal, about two days later, Hauru took the time to turn them all back into their ordinary selves. They had stayed as dogs up until that moment simply because they could travel far faster in that shape than as humans.

"It feels kind of strange to be walking on just two legs again," Astrid commented as she tried to steady herself, not quite finding her balance right away. "And it's way chillier to walk around here without that fur! Gods this is cold!"

Kairi smiled and let out a giggle at the sight of the shivering viking and Hauru smiled at her as well, him being the only one who seemed unaffected by their transformation back into humans. He walked past Astrid and reached out into what seemed to be nothing but air, and suddenly a handle appeared in his hand. Slowly, the door took shape in front of their eyes and Astrid gave off a low whistle.

"I have to say, that's some really nice magic tricks you've got, Hauru."

"They're not tricks, Astrid, but I'll take it as a compliment," Hauru snorted in response as he opened the door. "Ladies first."

Astrid muttered something unintelligible under her breath towards him as she passed him and entered the hotel room at Yubaba's bath house waiting for them on the other side of the door.

Kairi was about to follow, when her eye was drawn towards something glittering in a tree some steps away. Curious as of what it might be, she went over to the tree and discovered that someone had left a necklace hanging on the lowest branch, and that was what had been glittering in the light coming from the magical doorway.

"Kairi?" Hauru's voice didn't sound worried, but she hurried back to him anyway, bringing the necklace with her.

Once they were all back inside the hotel room, Hauru closed the door and turned the colored disc above it, so that the dusty white stripe was once more pointed out by the black arrow.

"I'm going to get us some cooked food, before we get on with this adventure, he said and before any of the girls could argue, he had left the room. Not that any of them would have complained. After having been a part of a great group of wild dogs, they had more or less been forced to eat what was available to them as such, meaning a lot of raw meat.

Kairi looked at the necklace in her hand. It was a black leather thong, holding on to a silver wire hanging device that held a sparkling white, diamond shaped stone. The stone was polished glossy and the edges were rounded, making it feel soft and cool in her hand. She turned the stone around in her hand and discovered a black lightning bolt going through the center of the stone. As she looked at it, it felt as if something was set on fire inside of her heart, a slight tingling sensation, and then warmth spread throughout her body as the stone glowed for a moment. She felt as if she had been touched by a heart… Deciding she should keep the stone close to her, Kairi put it into one of the pockets in her belt, figuring she could always ask Hauru about it later on.


	23. Part 2: Chapter 7 Unexpected

**Chapter 7:2: Unexpected**

"_You don't _get_ cats. They just happen."_ (Melody Rheems)

"Wow, those towers are pretty high…" Hermione mused as they got closer to what seemed to be the center of the Kingdom of Cats. She had to bend her head back a bit in order to see the top of the towers that belonged to the strange looking castle they were approaching.

"I'm more concerned about the cats, really," Donatello said as they rushed past a number of human sized cats that looked at them with both curiosity and a bit of fear showing in their almond shaped eyes. There seemed to be a village of small cat houses spreading out over the grounds closer the castle. The houses looked more like some sort of large clay bee-hives than something Hermione would have picked out as the residence of a cat, but she figured that they were both roomier and better looking inside and that what was showing above ground only was part of the homes.

"Hey, could you slow down a bit," Riku called out to the white cat leading them as he tried to get through a thick brush of high grass smelling of something that made his head spin and his skin buzz at the touch. He felt strangely comfortable in the grass and would very much enjoy being able to rest there for a moment.

The blue eyed white cat, who'd presented herself as Yuki, turned around and gasped in what seemed very much like fear and got back a few steps, grabbing hold of Riku and pulling him along with her out of the high grass. In a reflex motion, Riku grabbed on to Hermione as well, who in turn took a hold of Donatello and not long after, they were all out of the high grass and Riku felt a whole lot clearer in his head.

"Hey, what was that grass back there? It made me feel all… funny," he said to the white cat as soon as his head cleared up enough for him to realize that he shouldn't go back.

"That's catnip," Yuki informed them and Hermione made big eyes at the note.

"First off, that's about the largest catnip I've ever seen. Secondly, why did _we_ get all funny in our heads? It's supposed to only affect cats, right?"

When the white cat looked at them in silence, Hermione suddenly got a very uncomfortable feeling in her guts telling her that she really didn't want an answer to that question, but despite that, she finally took a good look at her friends and realized that something was strange with Riku's appearance. Donatello had his hood on, so she couldn't see him as clearly as she saw Riku, but something told her that they all were experiencing the same thing and she didn't like it one bit.

"Hermione, what are you looking at? Something wrong with my hair?" Riku asked, a bit annoyed as he noticed Hermione's intense inspection.

"You could say that…" she mumbled in a slight disbelief as she moved her hands up her own face and head with a terrified expression in her eyes.

Riku blinked, and then he saw what he should have noticed much sooner and his hands went up to his own head in the same manner as Hermione.

"It's already starting!" their guide said in a sad voice. "Whatever you do, you must remember who you really are and keep fighting to get back to your own world! This is the curse of the Kingdom of Cats! If you stay too long…"

"We're turning into cats, aren't we?" Hermione asked, her voice hollow and her eyes empty of all emotion as she finally let go of the large triangular ears that had taken the place of her ordinary human ones.

Riku saw Donatello discretely put a hand inside his hood and then noticed the turtle shiver at the notice of the change that had gotten to him as well.

"I thought my hearing had gotten a lot better, but I figured it was part of my imagination," Donatello muttered as he moved up to walk beside Riku, once they were all moving again.

"I don't want to be turned into a cat again, I don't want to…" Hermione mumbled to herself as she walked on his other side, constantly letting one of her hands move up to her cat ears, only to let the hand drop quickly as soon as it touched the fur.

Riku gave her an odd look, but he didn't say anything. After all, Hermione had told him that she came from a world where magic, spells and potions were as natural as breathing air, so he figured she had to have come across one or two of these that had put her into a similar situation as the one they were now facing. Instead, he turned to their guide.

"Where are you taking us? I mean, I know it's to find the Sky Stone, or whatever you called it, but where is it?"

"At the castle," came the answer from Yuki as she kept going. "The Cat King had the stone put into his treasure chamber."

"I hate to point out the obvious," Donatello said as he picked up his pace to walk beside Riku, "but if we're going into the castle, then why aren't we using the road leading through the front gates?"

"Because if we do, the King will see us, and then we will never be able to get out in time."

"Why not?" Riku asked, a dawning understanding in his voice.

"Lately he's been acting strange, not liking strangers around him and even being a bit paranoid towards his closest servants. It's as if something dark has entered him and it all happened not long after he got hold of the Sky Stone."

"That's…" Donatello started, but then he suddenly stopped and pulled out his bo-staff from underneath the cloak and got himself in a fight-ready position.

"Don? What are you…" Riku said as he noticed Donatello's movements. He was interrupted by a sudden yowl of fear from a cat nearby and as he turned to look he saw what had made Donatello act the way he had.

A growing group of heartless was coming up from the high grass. Some ordinary Shadow ones, but there were also a majority of other ones that Riku didn't recognize. They more or less looked like very stretched out cats, walking upright on their spiky hind legs and sweeping the sharp and long, nail-thin claws of their forelegs in front of them like weapons. The yellow almond shaped eyes were glowing sharp against the night black smoking fur and the cat ears on the top of their heads ended in thin antenna-like tips. Their backs ended in long, whip-like tails with sharp ends, lashing back and forth in fearful patterns as they moved towards their victims, a small group of cats not far away from the three travelers and their guide.

"We've got to help those cats!" Riku said and called forth his keyblade as he started running towards the heartless, quickly followed by Donatello who didn't seem to take much notice to the fact that Riku had just produced a weapon out of thin air. Hermione did have a moment of hesitation though as she watched her friends rush into the battle.

She had known that following Riku on his journey would mean that they eventually would end up fighting those monsters once again, but she had hoped that the confrontation wouldn't have come this soon. She was still feeling the guilt and regret from her last fight with the moving shadows and she was uncertain of whether or not her magic was really to be trusted for this battle.

"They… they can fight the Nekko Shadows?" Yuki asked in fear-mixed admiration.

Hermione looked at her askance.

"Nekko Shadows? That's what you call those cat-like heartless over there?"

"Yes. They first showed on the same day as the King got the Stone. No one has been able to fight them off and they grow in numbers all the time."

Hermione closed her eyes hard for a moment, then decided she couldn't just stand on the side lines and be scared for the rest of her life if she was ever going to be able to get her friends back. Slowly, she pulled out her wand from inside her cloak and opened her eyes. With her face set in determination she started walking towards the group of heartless, following her friends.

"_We_ can fight them," she told the white cat over her shoulder before she started running. Riku and Donatello had already started fighting the beasts off, but they were severely outnumbered. As soon as she got within the right distance, Hermione threw her arm up and pointed her wand towards the creatures as she called out the expelliarmus spell. With a flash of light a large group of the heartless were scattered or blown up by the power of the spell and Riku turned around and sent an appreciating smile towards her.

"That thing sure told them off!" Donatello commented as he smacked his staff into a group of the ordinary Shadows that were still around. He was fighting without the cloak hiding him now, having thrown it off himself in order to fight better. One thing was sure; he looked pretty funny with a pair of green cat ears sticking up from the sides of his head.

Riku slashed with his wing-shaped weapon towards another group of the Nekko Shadows and a dark arch was sent at the monsters, slicing them in half and making them disappear in an instance, only leaving behind a number of glowing hearts that drifted upwards before fading out of existence.

"What was that?" Hermione asked, not having seen this before.

"I'll explain later," Riku huffed out as he turned to take care of yet another group of enemies coming towards them.

Hermione got the hint and started attacking the shadows herself, sending off expelliarmus spells together with "petrificus totalus" and "stupefies". Donatello guided the heartless into her fire range and she in turn started to aim her attacks so that the heartless she hit would be caught defenseless by Riku's blade. She had soon figured out that the ones that were cut by Riku were the only ones who for some reason didn't re-appear.

Within a minute or so the field was cleared of enemies and the three heroes stood panting in the open area where they'd taken care of the threat. Slowly, the cats they'd saved came out from their hiding, ears constantly moving and tails whipping in anxiety, until they realized that the monsters were truly gone.

"Did…did we get them all?" Donatello asked as he tried to catch his breath.

Riku nodded his affirmative and let the Way to the Dawn disappear from his hand.

Suddenly a loud trumpet was heard from the palace entrance and the doors were opened up to reveal a small company of what looked like a number of guards, marching in front of four black and white cats walking close to a carrier chair and yet another number of guards following behind this.

"Oh no, this isn't good," Yuki said as she came up close to the trio.

"Why not?" Donatello asked, a bit curious as to what this show could mean.

"That's the King of Cats," Yuki said in a hushed voice, making an inclination towards the grayish purple cat slouching in the carrier chair.

Riku looked over at the cat in question and wasn't surprised to find a hint of darkness oozing out from it. The King's eyes met Riku's for a moment as the chair stopped in front of them, and the two-colored stare sent an icing shiver down his spine.

"Ah", said the long furred cat king and leaned towards them with a strange smile on his lips. "I see you've been able to fight those obnoxious monstrosities."

"Yes, sir," Riku answered and let his head fall slightly forward in a very shallow bow. "We are their enemies and we travel in order to seek them out and rid the world of them."

"I see," the king purred as a nasty look entered his eyes. "Then I must invite you to a feast of celebration that will show you our gratitude for what you've accomplished! Come! Be my guests!"

Riku repeated his bow and shook his head.

"I thank you for the invitation, your highness, but we are in a hurry and mustn't be delayed any more than necessary and therefore we must decline."

There came a displeased harrumph from the large cat in the ornate carrier chair, but the smile was soon back on his lips.

"But then there must be something we can present you with to show our appreciation, hmm? We cannot simply let you go without anything given in return for your favor."

Riku couldn't help but smirk at how easy it was to manipulate this person.

"Well, now that you mention it, we are looking for a certain stone. We would have great use of it, should we get it in our possession. Do you happen to know where we could find the Sky Stone?"

The King of Cats flinched and blinked as if he was suddenly woken up from sleeping, then his smile grew to look very much like the Cheshire cat's grin, only less friendly.

"As it happens to be, I recently got the very stone you seek into my possession," he purred and waved with a bejeweled paw towards the palace. "Just come with me to the throne room and I'll bring it to you."

Riku smiled, his eyes narrowing as he thought his options over.

"Riku…" Hermione said in a low voice, putting a hand on his arm, "are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"No. But we need that stone," Riku replied calmly and bowed his head to the king. "I am much pleased to hear this and I will follow you."

"Purrrrfect," the king said and his wide smile grew even wider as a hint of yellow shone through in his blue and red eyes. "Then please come, and bring your friends. It was long since I last had such a beautiful lass in my corridors and that green friend of yours is highly interesting."

"If I may say so, could they stay outside? We don't know if the monsters will come back and they could keep guard."

The cat king stroke his whiskers slowly and closed his eyes.

"Either you all come, or none of you come. I haven't had visitors over for quite a while, and I won't settle for one when I can have three," he purred and Riku gritted his teeth. The old geezer was more cunning than he'd thought.

"As you wish then," Riku replied and gave his friends an apologetic look.

"You tried," Hermione said appreciatively and Donatello nodded in agreement.

They followed the line of cats inside, constantly keeping an eye on their surroundings in order to find possible escape routes as well as possible traps.

As they entered the throne room though, they forgot for a moment why they were worried. The walls stretched up in high arcs that seemed without end and with even spaces there were glassless windows that stretched almost the entire length of the walls, high and narrow. Said walls were also decorated with mosaic and carvings of cats, fish, mice and more so. From the ceiling someone had hung long drapes of a deep royal red, decorated with gold stitching and in the back of the room, placed to be in the center of attention to anyone who entered, was a large throne with red velvet cushions. In front of the throne stood a long table, filled with all sorts of food and juices.

"Since I already had the table set, why don't you help yourselves, hmm?" the king of cats purred as he stepped off of his carrier chair and went towards a small room on the side of the throne. "I'll be right out with the stone."

Hermione and Donatello looked at Riku, uncertain of what to do. It was true that they hadn't eaten much since they left Montessor Space Port. But on the other hand, they still had their bags with necessities with them, meaning they didn't _need _to eat from this table.

Riku shrugged.

"Can't hurt saving our own rations," he said and picked up an apple.

Hermione hesitated for a moment, then picked a boiled egg and took a bite, feeling her hunger getting just a bit too noisy to be ignored. Donatello took his while looking at the table, and sighed.

"Seriously, why doesn't anyone eat pizza?" he muttered as he finally decided on a piece of bread. He took a bite and chewed in thoughtfulness, looking at the surroundings. "This has to be the largest cat house I've seen," he said.

Riku chuckled at this comment and got rid of the remains of his apple in a waste bin that was held up for him by a bowing cat as he turned to look. He thanked the servant and the cat in question smiled, looking at him with his emerald green eyes.

"You don't have to thank me sir, it is my job to look after the needs of his highness' visiting cats."

Riku raised an eyebrow at this comment.

"But we're not cats," he said slowly, feeling a bit odd about it all.

The servant blinked, a bit confused it seemed.

"But, you are, sir. At least you are close enough to being a cat to count you as one. And don't worry, soon enough you'll be all freed of your humanity," the green eyed cat said with a smile and bowed once more, before leaving the room.

Riku felt something was wrong, all the hairs on his silver cat ears standing on end as he realized it had felt like this for some time now. He just hadn't noticed it. Slowly, ever so slowly, he turned his head to look behind him, and saw what he had just felt move. A long-haired silver shimmering cat's tail stretched out from the top of his pants and down to his knees. And he could move it.

"Hey, guys, stop eating!" he called out to the others and Hermione turned to look at him, holding a small cupcake in her hand, ready to take a bite.

"Why…" she started asking, then noticed Riku's changed looks and her eyes grew wide with something looking like a mix of surprise and horror. "Y-you've g-got a-a a tail… and your hands! Your face – Riku! What's happening?" she stuttered out, throwing the cupcake away from her and instantly noticing how her own hands had turned into a pair of slightly fuzzy paws.

Donatello looked at his own hands in disbelief, a somewhat troubled expression in his face at the sight of the perfectly shaped green cat paw.

"This is most certainly not a scientifically explicable phenomenon," he muttered as he turned his paws over and moved the toes of them until he discovered the claws. "Interesting and most troubling."

"Interesting?" Hermione squealed out in panic, her tail standing out from her body with all hairs on end and her ears laid flat against her skull. "This is _not_ interesting! It's horrible!" She had tears in her eyes and suddenly it was as if her anger went into some sort of apathy, her tense body turning limp. She sunk down to her knees and put her arms around herself in a hard squeeze of her torso.

Riku whipped his tail in annoyance and got over to her, taking a firm hold of her shoulders with his own paws, the tips of his claws peaking out as he did.

"Hermione, get a _grip_! You're not the only one who's suddenly grown a tail and an odd pair of ears! None of us likes this, but that doesn't give you the right to curl up in a ball and give up, just because we run into some trouble! Now get up on your paws or whatever and stop acting like a defenseless fool! You're a _witch_ for crying out loud!"

Hermione looked up at him with big, scared eyes.

"But I don't know how to get rid of this," she said and looked at her paws.

"You have to get out of here! _Now_! And remember who you are!"

All three turned towards the voice as Yuki came running towards them from a side entrance.

"What do you mean by that? We _know_ who we are!" Hermione hissed at her and suddenly she had whiskers on each side of her nose and fangs in her mouth.

"But you must _remember_ too! It's of great importance that you don't lose yourselves! Don't eat any more of the food and don't wait for the king, just leave!"

"But we still need the stone," Donatello reminded her and Riku nodded in agreement.

"It's true. We can't get away from this place without it."

Yuki got a slightly troubled expression in her face, but then she closed her eyes and nodded.

"Then follow me and be quick!"

They followed the white cat as she took off through yet another side entrance. After having taken a number of left and right turns into and out of different rooms, they finally stopped in front of a small door with a tiny lock on.

"This is an almost forgotten door and I only know about it since I happened to come this way when making an errand to another part of the castle. It leads to the treasure chamber, where the king keeps the Sky Stone. I don't know how to open the door though, but we can't get in through the ordinary door, because that one's guarded."

Riku looked at the lock, then took a step forward.

"Leave that to me," he said, calling forth the Way to the Dawn. He hadn't unlocked anything with it before, but if Sora could do it, he guessed he would be able to do it as well. As he raised the weapon towards the lock, he felt a surge of energy go through his arms and the blade more or less acted on its own. A white beam of soft light went from the keyblade to the keyhole and a clicking was heard as the lock turned and the door swayed open.

"That has to come in handy a lot," Donatello commented as Riku let the blade disappear again.

"We get inside, get the stone and then we get out," Riku said, putting his paw on the door. "Any questions?"

"What do we do if we're caught?" Hermione asked slowly.

"Fight with fangs and claws and every weapon we can think of. We're getting out of here before we lose to this place's spell."

"Sounds good to me," Donatello said and got his bo-staff ready. Hermione swallowed the lump of fear and nervousness in her throat as she took out her wand, following Donatello's example.

The treasure chamber was just as big as the throne room, but filled from the floor to the ceiling with all sorts of objects. Everywhere they looked, their eyes met with glittering, shimmering and gleaming things of metal and glass, jewels and pearls.

"Ever since he discovered the ruins, the king has been collecting all sorts of treasures here. I don't know what you may find in here, but I suggest you don't touch anything but the stone. It was after the discovery of the ruins that his majesty changed…" Yuki said in a low voice and cowered in the opening. "I will stay here and keep the door open for you. Please hurry!"

They silently decided to split up and search, each of them taking different directions as they came to a sort of crossroads in-between piles of treasures. Hermione went to the left, Donatello to the right and Riku kept going forward.

After having met with a dead end, Hermione turned around to get back to the crossing, when she spotted something odd amongst all the jewelry and gold. A very small and thin book, with red leather binding was lying thrown on a small stool of silver. Books in a treasure chamber was a most unusual sight, even for someone as fond of books as her and she figured she should take a look at it. After all, it might prove useful.

She walked over to it and picked it up, reading the small letters written across its cover.

_A very useful book_. Hermione blinked. Was someone trying to pull a prank on her? She opened it up to find blank pages. So someone had put a notebook in the treasure chamber?

"What am I doing?" she asked herself with a sigh. "If I could just find that darn Sky Stone I'd get rid of this god-awful spell!"

Suddenly, just as she was about to close the book and put it back, text appeared on the blank pages and Hermione was startled, remembering the last time she'd encountered a book that wrote itself. She decided to read the text anyway, wand at the ready just in case. What she read made her raise her eyebrows in surprise though.

"_Back to the parting point, head forward towards the silver one and make a left at the ruby._"

_Can't hurt trying, _she thought and decided to follow the advice given by the book, putting it in the inner chest pocket of her cloak as she went.

She got to the crossing, and figuring "the silver one" to be Riku, she headed towards the same direction as him. She soon found him searching among a number of satin pouches over to the right of a large clearing in the treasury. Looking to the left, Hermione actually spotted a large, burning red ruby in the hands of a golden monkey statue. She went past it and only a few steps away, she saw it: a large blue crystal.

Hermione patted her chest and felt the small book inside the pocket.

"I'm keeping you for sure," she said with a smile on her lips and picked up the Sky Stone before returning to Riku. Donatello had shown up now as well and when Hermione got to them he could confirm the stone to be the one they'd been looking for as she showed them her finding.

"Well done, Hermione!" Riku said and put a paw on her shoulder. "Now let's head back to the door and get out of this place."

They were almost all the way back at the door when they heard the alarm. It was a high yowling sound that echoed throughout the entire castle.

"Hurry!" Yuki called to them from where she was standing by the door with a worried expression in her blue eyes.

All three teens ran through the door and followed the white cat through the corridors, hearing the guards of the castle marching fast behind them. Yuki knew the castle way better though, and after a few side routes through empty rooms and such, they finally got out through a sewer pipe that lead them outside the castle walls and into the moat surrounding it.

Wet, but free, the four escapees swum across to the opposite shore and crawled out of the water, shaking the fur dry before they once more started running. But somehow the guards had outwitted them at this, showing up to close off their way to freedom.

"Did you really think you could steal from me and get away with it?" the voice of the king was heard from behind the row of guards that kept Riku and the others in place. Riku clenched his teeth and produced the keyblade, an act that made the guards flinch and take a hesitating step backwards.

"Let us go! We need the stone to get back home and we've already agreed on exchanging it for the favor of ridding you of those heartless before!" Hermione pointed out to the king, trying to accomplish eye-contact with the purple cat.

"Oh, rrrreally now?" the king purred with a vicious grin spreading on his lips as his eyes suddenly shifted in yellow. "If you took care of the pests, then why are they still here?"

Suddenly shadows were moving on the ground and heartless started to rise from them, the glowing eyes set on Riku and his keyblade. That's when Riku saw it: the king was infected, if not controlled by a heartless. The mark of the heartless had been there in front of his eyes all this time, but he hadn't noticed it due to the long fur of the cat in question, covering half of the crest on his chest. Without losing time on further hesitation, Riku moved towards the king with the Way to the Dawn pointing towards the cat. The guards didn't even have time to react before the thin beam of light shot out from the weapon and hit the king of cats straight on the crest in his chest, making him tumble backwards and off the carrier chair he'd been brought on. There was a low cracking sound, then a gust of black smoke rose from the fallen cat and vanished.

No one moved. Then they all stared at Riku as he straightened himself out and walked over to the shocked and huffing cat that was lying on his back in the grass with a surprised expression in his eyes.

"What – what happened?" the king asked in a confused manner and took the paw offered by Riku.

"You were controlled by a dark power and I simply knocked it out of you," Riku replied as he helped the cat back up on his chair. "Now if you excuse me, I'll have to rid us of the remaining Shadows."

Within a minute, he and his two friends had taken care of the problem caused by the king and got ready to leave the scene, when the king asked them to stop.

"I've, uhm, acted a bit, uhm, out of my way, I know that. Is there anything I, that I can do for you to make up for this, this most unpleasant event?"

Riku thought for a moment, then looked at his friends askance, but they only shrugged, not knowing what to do.

"Just let us leave so that the spell of this place is taken away," he said as he returned his turquoise eyes to the king.

Blinking in surprise at the demand, the purple cat scratched his chin as he thought it all over.

"You really want to leave? So soon?" he asked, sounding more or less sorry for it. Riku and the others nodded decisively at this and the king sighed. "Then go on. I'm too old to keep people against their will."

Yuki lead Riku, Donatello and Hermione through the cat village they'd passed before and to the spot where she'd found them.

"This was where we met. I know the ruins to be in that direction, towards the small hill," she said pointing towards where she meant for them to go. "If you walk in a straight line from here, it should be faster than it was for you to get here. Now leave, and be safe!"

Riku took her white paw in his own silver ones and held it for a short moment as he looked her in the eyes.

"Thank you for your help, Yuki. We won't forget it," he said before letting go and turned around to leave.

"I thank you as well, for bringing me and the kingdom hope of returning to normal. You fought the Nekko Shadows and won."

Hermione gave the cat a sudden hug and as she let go, she smiled towards her.

"You stay strong and we'll do our best to save this world. Don't worry," Hermione said and looked at Riku. "Right?"

Riku nodded and Donatello smiled in understanding as he saw Hermione's face turn a little bit more human, the whiskers fading away and her lips re-shaping a bit.

Suddenly Yuki's eyes widened and she let out a scared: "Oh!" before she fumbled with something underneath the pink sash around her neck. She brought forth a small object, gleaming in the sunlight with silver and green, as it dangled from a thick, glossy blue and red thread. "I almost forgot, Riku, this is for you. I came across the jewel while you and your friends were brought inside the castle and thought it should somehow be brought to use, so I made this key chain. I think it will do something to your weapon, but I'm not sure how."

Riku took the gift in his paw and felt a connection with it be made in his heart, the key chain reacting with the source of the keyblade inside of him. He now saw that the jewel infact was shaped like a cat's eye, a black line in its centre looking like a pupil.

"Thank you, Yuki," he said with a genuine smile and his paws turned back into ordinary hands in an almost invisible transformation. "I know just how to use it."

They all felt a bit bad for leaving without trying to set everything back to the way it should be, but should they turn into cats, it would all be lost anyway, so they ran as fast as they managed over the sea of grass that they'd first spotted when they got to this place. About an hour or so later, they found themselves standing in front of the Stargate ruins, panting and tired to their bones.

"Hermione, put the stone into the hole in that pillar table-thing-a-majing," Donatello instructed as soon as he'd caught his breath.

Hermione took out the stone from her cloak and did as she was told. The stone lit up as it made contact with the pillar and she exhaled in relief, knowing now for certain that she'd taken the right stone back with them.

"Now what?" she asked and turned to Donatello, who shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't know," he said, scratching behind one of his still remaining cat ears. "We're supposed to dial another gate's number, but I really don't know how, so we'll have to guess the combinations and hope for the best."

Hermione was about to curse at the turtle for his lack of knowledge of the thing that he himself had recommended for them to use, when she came to think about the book still lying in her cloak's inner chest pocket. She brought out the _Very Useful Book_ and asked it what to do, then opened it. As expected, advice came quickly on the blank pages and Donatello leaned in with interest as the text presented itself to them.

"Seriously, you have to teach me that magic stuff one of these days," the turtle said as he started to follow the book's instructions as to what symbols to press down on the dial device circling the Sky Stone.

Hermione only smiled in silence, then turned to where she thought she would find Riku, but discovered he was missing.

"Donnie, where's Riku?"

They both turned to where he'd been standing only a moment ago, trying hard to remember seeing him leave.

"I'm here," Riku's voice reached them from the surrounding forest and they turned their eyes towards it. "I think I've found a keyhole."


	24. Part 2: chapter 8 The land of demons

**Chapter 8:2: The land of Demons**

"_Oh! If such a one was to come from God, and not the Devil, what a force for good might he not be in this old world of ours_." (Proffessor Van Helsing, _Dracula_, Bram Stoker)

* * *

><p>Sora looked up above his head, following the direction of the faint light that was falling down on them.<p>

"I don't care much about what this place is, as long as we can get out of it," Sora mused and looked at the rich growth of vines that covered one of the walls. "Does these look climbable to you?" he asked Will and tested the strength of the plant with his free hand.

"You don't have to climb," Luffy answered him as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. "I can take you along when I go up."

Sora only looked at him askance for a moment, then was about to ask him what he meant by that, when Luffy grabbed him by his collar.

"Hang on to your jacket," he said with a big smile, stretched out his free arm to reach the top of the well. He grabbed the wood frame and before Sora had realized what was happening, he was shot through the air together with the pirate as the rubber effect of his arm kicked in and the outstretched limb returned into its ordinary size while they continued upwards for a moment.

Sora somersaulted in the air as he felt that he was reaching the peak of his ascent, using what he could of his glide ability to direct himself to land beside the well instead of falling back into it. He landed in a roll on the soft grass that covered the ground and got to his feet with his keyblade at the ready, knowing without a doubt that he was going to need it very soon.

As Will flew out of the well and joined them, Sora sensed the first attack coming from his left and dodged just in time to avoid it. The attacker flew straight past him instead of taking him down and as it touched down on the ground, the small creature rolled to its feet and glared at Sora with its yellow slits for eyes. It was a heartless, no doubt, but it was small and sported four legs, two bushy tails and fox-like ears instead of antennas. The little creature almost looked harmless, had it not been for the sharp claws scratching the ground and the pointy snout that opened up in a black, jagged mouth as if it was hissing at him. Sora lashed out at the heartless, but it escaped in the last moment, being incredibly fast and disappearing without Sora being able to track where it went.

Turning over his shoulder to see where it had gone to, Sora spotted another heartless, not far behind Will, this one being just as small, but looking more like a black, three-eyed bird of some sort.

"Will! Behind you!" he called out a warning just in time for the guardian to avoid the attack. Luffy shot forth a stretched out hand and grabbed the bird-heartless, grinning proudly as he pulled it back to him.

"I got it!" he announced, then grimaced as the thing obviously resisted his capture of it. Suddenly it popped its head out through the back of the hand that had caught it and opened its black beak in a silent caw, before the entire heartless escaped and took to the air. It turned almost instantly towards Sora and the keyblade that was still in his hands.

Sora huffed at the small fry and swung his keyblade with ease, slicing the thing in two as it went for him. The bird disappeared in a mist of darkness and a heart faded away as it climbed towards the sky.

"Where did that other little thing go?" Sora asked the others, as he scanned the area for more attackers, sensing it hadn't been all the opponents they would face here.

"You mean that fast bugger? No clue," Luffy said as he massaged his cold hand. Holding on to the heartless had almost made him lose the sense of touch in it, but now it was slowly coming back, making his hand ache somewhat as it did.

Will hovered closer to Sora and landed next to him, her eyes darting from one bush to the other. They were standing in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. The trees were standing closer together here than they did in the world they'd just left, and the type of tree was different too in a way; most of them tall and slender instead of thick and massive, leaf carrying trees outnumbering the ones with needles. The sky was dark, but it seemed like it was clearing up and turning brighter, as if it was at the break of dawn, and a thin mist was slowly lifting from the grass.

"Do you feel that too?" Will asked as she kept her eyes at the surroundings. "That heavy silence."

Not a sound was heard from the forest part from the gentle rustle of branches moving in the wind. Usually there should be birds chirping and small animals moving about in the bushes. But there was nothing of the sort and above it all was a blanket of pressure, something that made the very air seem too thick to breathe.

"It's like a bad aura, but I don't think it's from the forest," Sora said and nodded. "I think we better get moving, before whatever it is finds us and decides to attack before we know anything about it."

Luffy looked at them with a spaced out expression as this conversation was held. He didn't understand what they were talking about, but he felt a bit weird, that was certain, so he didn't complain about moving on.

When Will asked for the direction, Sora closed his eyes and let the keyblade lead him, then pointed out the way he'd sensed was the right one and went ahead, the other two following with yet another question forming in their minds as to who Sora really was. As they entered the area of trees, they passed a clearing with one tree that was way larger than the rest of them, almost having an ancient air to it. Sora paused for a moment as he spotted it and took a closer look, sensing there was something special about this tree. The old bark was cracked and dry in some places, the roots rising above ground in large loops, almost as if creating natural bridges up to a certain height of the wide trunk. Sora took another step towards the tree, squinting a bit as he tried to focus his sight on a spot where one of the roots had its nest. There was something important about this; he felt it in his heart. There seemed to be a hole in the bark, small, but still…

Suddenly the silence of the forest was breached by the sound of fighting and Sora turned towards it, forgetting for the moment what he had been doing and picked up speed, not needing to tell the others to come along. He could feel a strong presence in the direction they were heading and it probably meant that they had a major heartless to take care of and from the sounds of it, civilians to rescue.

* * *

><p>Sango threw her demon bone boomerang again, the large weapon hitting the demonic beast straight on in the chest before returning to her. But just like before, the hit didn't seem to bring on any damage to the creature. It did keep it in place though, making it back off before trying to move towards her again.<p>

"Kirara, we need to get a little higher up! Try to get behind it!" she called out to the large two-tailed demon cat she was riding. The saber tooth animal roared and moved upwards on flaming paws, doing her best to see to her rider's wishes. But the shadow demon they were fighting seemed to understand what they were trying to do, and moved just in time to make the duo come straight for its chest instead, in perfect range for its gigantic arms to swing down upon them.

Sango gasped and managed to lean with Kirara as she desperately tried to avoid the attack and they escaped the fist by a hair, Sango feeling the draft of it passing by her neck as Kirara moved away as fast as she could. They were really in for a hard fight this time, and to top it off, none of the others were nearby to help her. The thing was huge and it had shown up just as she'd gone far enough from the village to not be able to call for help and be heard. It was almost as if the thing had planned for it to be so and this made her wonder about the others. If she for some reason wasn't the only one being attacked, then how were the others faring and were all the attackers of the same size and difficulty level? She'd fought many demons in her life and the shadow demons that had started showing a few weeks ago had been completely different from this one. They'd been small and barely able to fight back when they were attacked. But then they'd started to change, taking on other shapes and while some had shrunk and some had grown, they all had got stronger. A lot stronger.

Sango bit her lip as she tried to find a way to defeat this monstrosity quickly and look up her friends before they as well were trapped. The only trouble was that all the times before, she'd managed to get rid of the shadow demons by using her boomerang bone. Now, it seemed inefficient at anything but getting the beast agitated while pushing it back a step when it hit. She knew from before that none of the poisons worked and if the monsters were cut, they just healed and got the pieces back together again without even seeming to notice they'd been wounded. So what could she do to defeat this thing before it reached the village?

Suddenly she was struck from behind, caught off guard while focusing on the big prey. A small shadow demon bird had attacked her back and only Kirara's swift movement had saved her heart from being taken as the attacker missed its target the second time it came at her. Kirara took them down on the ground and in underneath the shelter of the treetops as Sango fought to catch her breath, thanking her specialized armor for she didn't know what time in the order. Had it not been for the magical power of it, she would most certainly not have survived that first hit.

Kirara yowled with worry and looked up at her, and Sango pressed a smile onto her lips as her breathing got back to normal.

"Thank you Kirara. You saved me again. Now, we have to get back out there and stop this thing from getting to the village. Laydy Kaede's protective shield can only hold this kind of thing out for a few minutes."

She motioned Kirara around to get out from the trees, when suddenly, there were no trees to get out from. The demon had ripped the small part of the forest out with its roots, throwing the trees away to the side as if they were weeds in its garden. Kirara shot forward and Sango held on to her fur as the demon started to smack down its fists to get to them, creating large craters in the ground as it did so.

"Quintessence!"

Sango turned her head to look in the direction of the outcry and saw a large bolt of pink lightning that shot forth to hit the demon beast with full power, making it tumble to the ground and sit down on its behind, the yellow orbs that were its eyes staring coldly at the one that had dared attack it.

In the direction where the bolt had come from, a young woman was hovering a bit above the ground, small wings fluttering hard at her shoulder blades to keep her aloft. She wore a strange outfit, making Sango think of her either belonging to the demon world or being some sort of witch. The sharp red color of her hair didn't help her think otherwise.

Just as the gigantic shadow demon got back to its feet, something else happened. Another person showed up beside the woman as she charged up another lightning blast. It looked to be a young man about the same age as the woman, only he had black hair and was wearing a straw hat, and a dark outfit that made him look just as strange as the more colorful woman, but the clothes weren't the strangest part about him though. He leaned back and suddenly his arm stretched out and grabbed a hold of the giant beast. The stranger shot forward, stretching the other arm as he went and hitting the creature full on, forcing it back down on the ground as he jumped away from the scene and ran back towards his friend. He'd barely made it back, before she released another ball of lightning and the shadow demon seemed to almost shrink as it got hit once again; darkness oozing off it like blood seeping out of a deadly wound.

Sango turned Kirara over and steered her towards the newcomers, figuring they were friends if they fought the same enemy.

"Who are you?" she asked as she got down behind them and threw her boomerang at the demon to keep it in place, feeling more than pleased when she saw the weapon hit at the very place the lightning had struck it and thus made the demon twitch and spew out a little more of the black smoke that was quickly escaping it now.

"Friends, let's keep it at that for now," the woman replied as she got ready to attack again. "Luffy, get around to the back of that thing and see if you can find Sora. I don't think I can keep this up much longer without draining the Heart."

"Okey-dokey," the young man said with a wink of his eye at her, before he stretched out his arms once more, grabbed a couple of tree trunks and shot forward, disappearing among the trees in an instant. Sango still had trouble believing what she had seen, but she let the matter be for later discussion and turned her attention towards the shadow demon instead.

"You seem to know how to fight this demon. Is there anything I can do to help keeping it at bay?" she asked the flying woman beside her.

"Just keep throwing that huge boomerang of yours at it and I think I'll be able to handle the rest until Sora finds its vulnerable spot," she replied and turned her weary face towards her, giving her a thankful smile.

Sango threw the boomerang as told, hitting the target full on once again, but this time the hit didn't seem to cause as much damage as the last time. The darn thing was recovering.

"Who's Sora?" she asked as she caught the returning boomerang.

Before the red-haired woman could answer her question, a flash of light erupted from behind the shadow demon and it cut like a sword through it, making the beast disappear in a vast cloud of black smoke, while what looked like a large pink heart-shaped object went up in the sky and faded away. Out from the smoke that still lingered around the place where the demon had fallen, stepped a tall, young man with sand-colored hair, clad in mostly black clothes, wearing bright yellow shoes and swinging what looked like an oddly shaped wooden sword of some sort to lie on his shoulder as he walked up to them. Beside him walked the guy from before, the one that had been called Luffy, grinning wide and patting the other one on the shoulder as he said something. Sango noticed the new guy's sharp blue eyes and realized she was staring. A bit ashamed of her acting, she turned down her eyes as he got closer.

"That -," the red haired woman said as she let her feet touch the ground, "- is Sora."

* * *

><p>"So the heartless started coming here about four weeks ago?" Sora asked as they walked towards the village. "That's a bit more time passed than I had thought, I have to admit that," he said as Sango nodded in response.<p>

They'd shared their stories in a short version as they had gathered around the decision to get to the village to see to its inhabitants and to check in on Sango's friends. Sora had of course left out the details of their travel between worlds and Sango had seemed satisfied with him explaining their appearance on the spot as mere coincidental as they were hunting down the heartless and had only just arrived.

"If all of them are as big as that one, you have to be pretty good fighters to have kept them at bay for this long," Luffy commented and Sango shook her head.

"They've grown much stronger lately, as if some of our original demons were giving them power. At least they've got enough miasma to have been gobbling down lower rate demons for some time," she said and removed the gas mask she'd been wearing up until now.

"Miasma?" Will asked, curious as to what she meant.

"You did sense it, didn't you? That foul stench and the heavy air. Miasma means a bad aura or toxic vapors that powerful demons sometime let out."

Sora nodded in recognition.

"We felt it alright. Is there any way to protect oneself from it?"

Sango pointed at her mask.

"You shouldn't breathe it in if you can avoid it, so the mask helps. But there is a kind that gets in through your skin and then nothing helps unless you're in some way immune to it. The miasma of that heartless, as you call it, wasn't toxic though, it only made it hard to breathe and keeping focus."

"Is there by any chance food to get in the village?" Luffy suddenly asked, putting his hands over his stomach. "I'm kind of hungry."

Sango had to laugh at his expression as he said this and smiled.

"I'll tell lady Kaede to make some food for you when we get there. I'm sure she'll be glad to help."

Will took out a small package from the sachet that they'd got from Denahi and shoved it into the pirate's hands.

"In the mean time, eat from our own food so that you don't swallow down the entire stock when you get there," she said and hung the sachet around his neck. "Help yourself."

Luffy looked a bit suspicious about the food given to him, then shrugged and un-wrapped the dry meat and ate it anyway, stretching his mouth in order to get the entire piece inside it without having to chew it into smaller parts first. This made Sango remember something she'd wanted to ask.

"About you guys, how come you have wings, Will, and Luffy can do these odd things…" she pointed at the guy in question as he looked in the sachet for more to eat. "And that weapon of yours Sora. You all seem so powerful and your attacks actually work on the shadow- err, heartless."

Sora produced the keyblade once more, the weapon appearing in his hand out of thin air.

"I have this weapon because it chose me to wield it when the heartless first started to attack," he said and let it go away again.

"And I have my wings and my powers because I was chosen to be a guardian of a sacred object called the Heart of Kandrakar," Will explained and produced the small jewel from inside her chest, letting it take back the powers as she went. Sango gasped at the transformation that turned the guardian of the Heart back into the school girl that was Will Vandom.

"And Luffy here is simply under a curse that makes him able to stretch beyond what's natural," Sora said in Luffy's place as the pirate had his mouth full at the moment and was unable to explain his situation himself.

Sango looked at him in askance.

"A curse you say? A pretty useful one then. That's not very common."

"It has its downsides too you know," Luffy said as he swallowed down the last of the contents of the sachet. "For one, I get a nasty hunger out of using the powers of it."

Sango rolled her eyes at this minor side effect and got off Kirara's back as they started to see the outer brims of the village. The large demon cat suddenly seemed to go up in flames, causing the three travelers to stare in shock at what was happening, when the fire stopped just as quickly as it had started, revealing a creature not bigger than a small house cat. Kirara meowed in a squeaky manner and jumped up into Sango's arms, purring as she curled up in her embrace.

Sango realized that she hadn't told them about Kirara's characteristics and smiled at their surprised faces.

"Oh, Kirara here is a demon. The_ good_ kind. She has the ability to transform herself when I need her to."

Luffy scratched his forehead and pushed the hat back.

"There are _good _demons?"

Will looked just as dumbfounded as him and Sora was no better.

"I thought demons were supposed to be bad," Will said, reaching out a hand to pat the small demon in Sango's arms. Kirara purred even louder as she did so and Will smiled. "But I know she's not bad, so I guess there are all kinds of them."

"You could say that," Sango said and came to think of a certain person that she should tell them about before they met him. Seeing as how his temper and manners didn't exactly always match up to his mainly good nature. "About that…"

She was interrupted by a small kid with tiny animal feet and a bushy fox tail sticking out from his pants rushing towards her from out of the bushes in wild panic.

"Sango! _Help me_! He's going to _kill _me!"

Sango peeled the shivering fox demon off her legs, letting Kirara down on the ground as she did so.

"Shippo, what's the matter?" she asked, her face only a little bit worried. "Did you tease Inu-Yasha again? You two have to get along better, you know."

Shippo shook his head violently.

"It's not that bloody dog! It's Miroku!"

"The monk?" Sango's worry was all gone and her face now only expressed a bit of curiosity. "What about him?"

Shippo refused to say anything more and Sango started to understand what it was about as she heard someone coming through the bushes from which the demon had emerged a minute ago.

"Shippo! _Come out so I can teach you not to fool around with a man's heart like that_!" an angry male voice called out and soon a young man dressed in black and purple robes stumbled through the greenery and upon the group of people standing on the road to the village. He carried a golden staff with a number of jingling rings at its circle-shaped top and his right hand was covered by a piece of purple cloth kept in place by a string of prayer beads. He was practically fuming as he brushed off some leaves from his clothes and pointed the staff he was carrying towards the small fox demon.

"How dare you impersonate Sango like that?" he said in a slight rage, then blinked, realizing that the fox demon weren't alone. "Oh, Sango…" he said, a bit surprised to see her, then looked at the strangers she was with, and finally returned his eyes to the fox that was now slowly backing away from both Sango and him.

"I can explain…" Shippo started as Sango stared down at him in silent anger.

"You impersonated me, huh?"

Shippo looked completely panicked and reached inside his vest for something. Suddenly he threw out what looked like a small spinning toy.

The newly arrived young man that the others assumed were this Miroku that Shippo had mentioned, suddenly threw away his staff and rushed forward, getting Sango with him down on the ground only a moment before the harmless toy turned into a colossal version of itself as it landed on the very spot where Sango had been standing before Miroku had got her out of the way.

"So long!" Shippo called out and vanished with a small poof and a burst of blue flames.

"Sango! Are you hurt?" Will asked, rushing forward as soon as the super sized toy stopped spinning and returned to its ordinary size. Luffy picked it up and put it in the now empty sachet, thinking it was quite a cool trick to pull.

"Monk," Sango whispered, lying on top of Miroku in the grass on the side of the road.

"No need to thank me, dear Sango," the monk in question said with a serious expression in his face. "I'd save you any time at all."

Sango suddenly changed her grateful expression into that of an annoyed one, as she felt the monk's hand come up to touch her behind. Sora, Will and Luffy heard a loud smack before they got to them. The demon hunter got up on her feet and snorted with displeasure as she walked up to the trio.

"Who is that guy? Did he hurt you?" Sora asked as he looked down on the dizzy man lying in the grass with a red handprint slowly fading from his face.

Sango sighed and shook her head.

"No, he's just a stupid and incorrigible idiot."

"So you're saying he's a _good_ guy?" Will asked, ignoring Luffy as he picked up the thrown staff and started poking the fallen monk with it.

"Nope. He's a perverted monk with no sense of tact. But he's on our side," she replied with an acid voice as she massaged her hand. She then looked over her shoulder and her expression changed from annoyed to tense. "That one over there though, isn't."

Sora and the others turned to look at what she was seeing and got ready to fight.

Walking up the road was a tall slender man with very long silver hair. He was wearing a pure white outfit of the obviously expensive kind, with wide pants and shirtsleeves moving softly with his body. At his side he carried two sheathed swords and on his upper body he had a strong looking armor. From his right shoulder a large boa of a light color was floating out behind him as he walked, as did the empty left sleeve of his shirt. His eyes were a piercing sharp yellow as he stared at them. Those eyes, the moon crest on his forehead and the stripes on his cheeks together with the pointed ears told them all that he was not any ordinary wanderer.

"Who is that?" Sora asked as he got closer to Sango, the Bear Claw keyblade flashing into his hands.

"That's a demon," Sango said slowly. "The _bad_ kind."

"I don't think he looks like a demon at all," Luffy said as he stopped poking Miroku and took a look at the man walking towards them. "Are you sure he's a demon?"

Sango nodded grimly and Kirara growled deeply in her throat before jumping to the ground. In a burst of flames the small kitten-like demon had once more transformed herself back into her larger and more fearsome self.

"I _know_ he is. What I _don't_ know though, is why he's here," Sango said and put a calming hand on Kirara's back. "We mustn't attack him unless he makes the first move though. Sesshomaru is strong, and he doesn't like humans all that much, but it's not always a fight he wants."

Will looked at Sango with a question in her eyes and decided to give it a try.

"How do you know this guy?"

Sango looked like she was trying to find a good way to answer that question, when Miroku, back on his feet after the momentary knock-out, cut in.

"Oh, he's related to one of our friends. And speaking of friends," he paused as he got his staff back from Luffy, who smiled wide at his frown, "who are you?"

"We'll take the long introduction later on, but I'm Sora. That's Luffy and this is Will," Sora said, hastily pointing out his comrades for the monk. "We are here to help you with the heartless."

Miroku looked like he wanted to know more, but there was no time left for small talk, as the demon Sango had called Sesshomaru got close.

He stopped walking about ten steps away from the group and looked at them with his icy yellow glare, before letting out an annoyed snort through his nose.

"So you say you can fight those creatures?" His voice was unexpectedly deep and rich with the power of self-confidence. He let his cold eyes rest on Sora, as if evaluating his strength. "I really can't see how. Humans are weaklings by nature. If a demon can't fight them, then how could a human possibly do so?"

Sora held back the words the insult had awoken in him and took a deep breath, showing a calm face to the others and the demon before them.

"We may be weak on our own, but together we can be stronger than anyone or anything. If we use our heads well enough and put our hearts in it, us humans can accomplish just about anything we want," Sora proclaimed in a calm voice and let his keyblade down, intent on not showing how afraid he truly was that Sesshomaru's words might be true.

The demon made a slight nod, as if accepting Sora's words as a truth, for the moment.

"Why are you here, Sesshomaru?" Sango called out, one hand on Kirara and the other going up to the fabric bound around her giant bone boomerang on her back.

Sesshomaru's smooth face cracked up in a vicious grin, revealing sharp fangs.

"Come now, is that any way to treat a guest? I clear the forest of a large number of those shadow creatures to make your puny village safe and this is the thanks I get?"

Now both Sango and Miroku stared in disbelief at the demon.

"You've been doing what?" Sango asked, clearly not ready to believe him on his word.

"Is this some kind of trickery?" Miroku asked, the hand holding his staff tightening around the object as if readying himself to fight. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Is it so unbelievable that I want a patch of this land to be free of those pests? As it is, I have my own reasons to create a safe haven and I thought that my brother's choice of living area would be as good as any. After all, you seem to have managed to keep it quite safe on your own." Sesshomaru walked up closer to them, the eyes fixed on Sora once more.

Before any of them knew how he did it, the demon stood at an arm's length from the keybearer. Sora jumped in pure surprise and took a slight step backwards before he calmed himself and forced his eyes to meet with the golden glare of Sesshomaru.

"So, what's your reason?" he asked the demon, surprised to find his voice steady.

Reaching behind himself with his left arm, which turned out to be the only arm he had, Sesshomaru suddenly produced a small girl who'd been hiding in the tail of his large boa.

"Rin!" Sango called out in surprise and the girl looked at her with recognition in her eyes and a small smile started to spread on her lips.

"Are you able to watch her? Or should I look for another place?"

Sora looked up at the demon's cold features and somehow he knew just how hard it was for the powerful being that he was to admit this weakness in front of people he considered so much weaker than himself.

"You know you can trust us, Sesshomaru. But can we trust you?" Miroku said while slowly stepping closer to Sango.

The demon huffed, as if insulted, then motioned Rin forward with his hand. The small girl looked up at him with sad eyes and reached out her small hands to take a hold of his sleeve.

"But I want to stay with you, Lord Sesshomaru! Please!" she objected, obviously not caring at all that the creature she held on to was a dangerous and powerful demon.

Sesshomaru looked down at her, his cold eyes for a moment softening as they focused on the girl.

"You have to stay here until I come back to get you, Rin. You're in my way and with Jakken gone, I can't leave you alone. You're staying here."

The voice was cold and lacked any emotion, and the words seemed harsh, but the girl seemed to understand something that the others couldn't hear in his message, because she only smiled and let go, then skipped over to Sango and took her hand.

"As long as you come back to get me, Lord Sesshomaru, I'll stay here if you want me to," she said with a sad smile and Sesshomaru nodded briefly.

"Good," he said and turned his eyes to Sango and Miroku. "Let the _hanyo_ know that I'm not going to accept that he loses this battle. I still want a chance to kill him with my own hands." And with that, he turned around and was gone in a flash, moving faster than any of them could see.

"Hanyo?" Sora asked and turned to Sango for help in understanding what the demon had meant.

"It means 'half-demon'," she explained absent-mindedly and got a strained expression in her face. "I'm still not sure if we can trust Sesshomaru to help us against the shadows, but I guess we have no choice."

"Lord Sesshomaru always keeps his promises," Rin said proudly as they started to walk towards the village. "And he's strong. He doesn't need your help fighting, but I guess he wants to help you out."

Will and Sora exchanged long looks with Miroku and Sango at those words. That demon was strong, and unpredictable, but he was sure as anything not to be trusted as a friend. Luffy missed the silent exchange of conclusions, but he looked unusually serious and scratched his head for a moment.

"Hey, what did the big fluff mean by this being his 'brother's living area'?" he suddenly asked, not able to get around that part of Sesshomaru's information.

Sango and Miroku blinked at the nick-name, then gave up a short laugh.

"Heh, well, that's what I was about to tell you before, when Shippo interrupted me," Sango said after getting her air back from the laughing. "And please don't ever call Sesshomaru _that_ in front of him, or you'll be sorry for it. This village sort of _is_ where his brother is staying."

"So, who's this 'half-demon' he mentioned then?" Sora asked, somehow already certain he knew the answer.

"Oh, right. Inu-Yasha isn't all too proud of it, but his mother was human," Miroku said matter-of-factly. "I think it's sort of part of the main reason as to why Sesshomaru doesn't like him."

Sora let his keyblade fade away as they neared the village, not wanting to stand out any more than he already did as they came among the villagers. Not that it helped much.

Just about every person they passed turned to look at them with fear, curiosity or a mix of the two apparent in their faces. They were simple farmers and Sora noticed the old style of their tools, clothing and homes. They seemed to have come to a world where things such as electricity and other modern devices were unknown, but on the other hand the place seemed more than understanding of the fact that there existed magic and demons…

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><p><em>Author notes: Thank you all for your patiance with my irregular updates... Don't really have an excuse but for me being a bit slow in understanding that I should update and not just write... ;) This is one of my favorite worlds being presented to the story! I hope you liked it! I've tried very hard to get the characters right. Took me four re-writes to cut down the text so that it wouldn't contain too much information and too little story... hope I succeeded! Let me know what you think!  Silverspegel_


	25. Part 2: chapter 9 Hollow

**Chapter 9:2: Hollow**

"_Long lost words whisper slowly to me. Still can't find what keeps me here. When all this time I've been so hollow inside..."_ (_Haunted,_ Evanescence)

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><p>Kairi turned the small silver star pendant over in her hand, looking at it and wondering silently how it worked. She had figured it to be a key chain, but how it worked she still didn't know. She'd never come to ask Sora about this part of the keyblade's functions.<p>

"What is that thing anyway?" Astrid asked her as she leaned forward and looked at what she was holding. "Gin seemed pretty intent on you getting it."

Kairi felt a sad smile stretch her lips at the thought of the young dog; sad because she doubted she would ever see him again.

"It's a key chain. The Falling Star key chain. It's for the keyblade."

Astrid looked at the thing in her hand once more, a wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows.

"A key chain? To that thing? Seriously, I think it's fancy and big enough without extra decorations… What does it do?"

Kairi giggled at the silliness of the decoration-comment and held the key chain up, dangling it in front of the viking's face.

"It strengthens the keyblade, re-shapes it and enhances certain aspects of it. I'm not sure how it works, Sora never got around to tell me about that, but I know it does."

Astrid still didn't look convinced but she let the matter fall anyway, deciding it wasn't worth getting a headache over it.

"Where is Hauru? How long could it take to get something to drink?"

They were sitting on a park bench of white painted wood in the outer area of a large city park with spread out greenery on each side of the winding path of asphalt that stretched throughout the area. They had entered this new world in the same manner as the last one: through Hauru's doorway. Only this time, it had melded with an already existing door in this world, so that when they all emerged through the door, it didn't really surprise anyone on the other side. They had taken their time walking around in the city where they'd landed, but had found no clue as to where a possible nest of heartless could be. In fact, this world seemed to not yet have been attacked by the shadows, which was both surprising and a little disappointing to Kairi. It wasn't like she wanted to fight the things – she'd rather not fight at all actually – but she had expected to be needed in every place they'd go to and seeing how fast the heartless had spread the last time they were loose in the worlds, she had sort of expected them to be all over the place.

She gazed out into the green area in front of them, seeing children at play in the sunlight, their parents watching them with careful eyes from a short distance or joining them in their games. This place was strangely peaceful. It was as if there was no danger there at all, and still she had this nagging feeling in her chest that she'd better get ready and be on her watch. Darkness was touching this world in a strangely invisible way, like leaking gas that slowly poisoned the surroundings without the inhabitants knowing it – until it was too late.

"Astrid, can you feel that?" she asked as she tried to focus her eyes on a distant tree branch where she thought she'd seen a squirrel.

"Feel what? The heat? The boredom?" the blonde asked with a tired expression in her face as she stared at basically nothing at all.

Kairi narrowed her eyes, not really noticing her friend's uninterested tone of voice. "No, not like that. I mean that strange pressure in the air… as if something of immense power is coming this way…"

Astrid gave her a look that told her she was acting rather stupid according to the viking. "That pressure is called approaching _thunder_, Kairi."

Kairi just shook her head in response and was going to explain what she meant, when she spotted Hauru walking up to them with three cans of cooled soda in his hands and waved for him to see where they were.

"Do you sense that strangeness in the air?" he asked as soon as he got to them, handing over the desired drinks to the girls. Astrid stared wide-eyed at him.

"Seriously, what's with the two of you? Have you never felt thunder before?"

Both Kairi and Hauru glared back at her.

"It's _not_ thunder, Astrid," Kairi said and took a sip of the soda, grimacing as the sugary taste touched her lips. This would surely make her thirstier than before and it tasted of fake berries – way too sweet to actually contain the fruit it proclaimed it was supposed to taste like.

"It's darkness," Hauru finished for her, setting his eyes on something further up the path. "And a pretty large mass of it too. But it's like it's only halfway inside this world…"

Astrid gulped down her drink, looked longingly on Kairi's can and repeated the procedure with that one when Kairi willingly gave it to her, having had enough of the sweetened and carbonated water.

"Halfway? What do you mean? Like, one foot on each side of the door or something?" she asked, a bit confused and handed the two empty cans to Hauru, who disposed of them in a trashcan next to him.

"More like it's here in spirit and mind, but not in flesh. I can't really say how that could ever be, but that's what it feels like," the magician explained in a low voice. "And the sensation is growing stronger by the minute."

"I don't feel anything," Astrid said with a shrug. "Are you sure the heat isn't getting to you?"

Kairi shook her head and was about to answer, when she heard a shrill shriek of an otherworldly quality that made her bones freeze, despite the summer heat of the sun. She instantly turned towards the sound and started running, followed by Hauru, who'd heard it as well, and a rather confused Astrid.

"Could you please tell me what's happening!" she demanded as she got up next to Kairi, running as fast as she could to keep up with the red-haired girl. Kairi was surprisingly fast once she had her mind set on running.

"A sound. Heartless. Probably," came the chopped up answer as Kairi focused on breathing and running, rather than speaking.

Astrid figured she'd find out sooner or later and kept running in silence. No one in the park seemed to have heard the same thing as Kairi and Hauru though, as all looked rather surprised as the three of them ran past at the top of their speed.

When they came to a wide clearing, with nothing but soft, light green grass covering the ground for a number of yards, both Kairi and Hauru made an instant halt, Astrid almost running into Kairi as they did. She was about to ask them why they'd stopped so suddenly, when the both of them bent their heads backwards, as if looking up at something really, really big.

"Astrid," Kairi said, her voice a bit shivering. "Are you certain that you don't see that thing?"

Astrid looked in the same direction as her friends, but saw nothing but a blue sky and a soft puffy cloud drifting slowly to the right.

"What exactly is it that I'm not seeing?" she then asked, starting to get a bit scared by the serious expressions in her friends' faces. "Is it a heartless?"

"Not quite…" Hauru said slowly, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he searched his mind for a fitting collection of spells to use.

Kairi could only agree with Hauru. What was standing on the field wasn't quite a heartless, but in one way it still was. It was huge; way larger than Akkakabouto and bigger than any heartless Kairi could remember seeing from before. It had two thick legs, ending in needle point stumps instead of feet. Two muscular arms that were longer and bigger than the legs supported the forward slumping body, a massive creation, though relatively short. Between the wide shoulders was a large head, covered by a gleaming white mask looking very much like the imitation of a human skull, with two glowing yellow orbs showing behind the vicious looking eye slits of the mask. The entire creature was about as tall as a ten story building, and as wide as a barn was long, the body a shifting shade of shadowy black, making the mask covering its face all the more brilliant. As it moved forward a step, a large hole in its chest was visible.

"That's one BIG heartless…" Kairi mumbled as her keyblade flashed into existence in her outstretched hand. The weapon had somehow changed, which all three of them noticed as Kairi raised it in a battle ready position. The hilt was wrapped with a wide leather strap and in the junction between hilt and blade, was a five-spiked star of silver. On each side of the star two silvery white metal handles stretched out in a smooth curl that followed the length of the hilt and ended in a fine point at the exact position of the bottom of the hilt, but not joining with it. The blade was of the same silvery white metal as the handles, shining brightly in the sunlight and revealing an almost invisible pattern of paw prints leading up to the key head. This was in the shape of an innumerable mass of sharp needles of silver stretching out from the blade in a neat bow on one of its sides, with an eight-spiked star at its center. And last, but not least, the Falling Star key chain hung from the bottom of the hilt.

"Fancy," Astrid whistled as she admired the weapon. "Are you sure you can fight with it?"

Kairi squeezed the hilt with both of her hands, feeling a strange but most welcome flow of power seeping into her from the weapon.

"I'm more than sure about it," she said and gave her friend a small smile.

Suddenly she spotted a movement just below the giant beast of a heartless. Someone was already fighting it. A young man in a black outfit with wide arms and legs was speeding back and forth in front of the creature while it tried to hit him with its colossal fists. He was fast though, way faster than the heartless and he seemed experienced as well. With a swift and graceful movement he drew the sword he'd kept in a full body length scabbard across his back and Kairi was surprised at how big the sword actually was once it was freed. Black metal gleamed in the sun as the weapon was cutting through the air, connecting with its target and sweeping back into position for another attack.

"Hauru, can you see that guy over there, with orange red hair?" Kairi asked slowly.

"He's fighting it," Hauru confirmed.

"And he can hurt it," Kairi added. "But he can't kill it."

"So, what are you waiting for? Go help the invisible man fight the invisible monster!" Astrid said with a grunt. "I'll try to keep sane people from walking into the area… somehow…"

"Err, am I right in hearing that you guys can see that thing?"

All three turned on their heels, and both Kairi and Hauru had to blink in surprise at the guy facing them. If they hadn't known better, this was the same guy they had just seen fighting the monster on the open field, the orange hair more than enough working as a mark of recognition, even though this version was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a wide red stripe across the chest.

"Uhm, yes?" Kairi managed to press from her lips, a bit uncertain as to what she should say. "And you are…?"

The guy broke up in a relieved smile that reached his ears and put his hands on his jean clad hips.

"I'm Kon! Boy, am I glad to hear that! Now I'm not gonna' be the only loon around here. I'm supposed to help Ichigo chase off those stupid enough to walk by the fighting field, but I'm only one guy… And if you can see the thing, maybe you know how to fight it too? 'Cause seriously, Ichigo could use a little help with this one."

Kairi looked at Hauru, making a quick decision as she spotted another rough attack being barely dodged in the background. She gave the orange-haired guy a quick nod.

"Me and Hauru will fight it with him. Astrid here can help you keep everybody else safe." And with that, she turned around and started running towards the heartless and the newcomer's look-alike, her keyblade raised in an attack-ready position.

The guy who'd presented himself as Kon gave Astrid a quick look up and down, then sighed in a disappointed manner.

"Of course I got stuck with the flat-chest one…"

Astrid formed a tight fist around the hilt of the broad sword hanging in its hilt at her waist and gave him an angry stare.

"One more word like that and you'll be flat in another area," she growled and the guy gulped, backing off a number of steps with almost impossible speed.

Kairi let the strike raid loose as soon as she was within a striking distance and kept running towards the guy that Kon had called Ichigo. The closer she got, the more she was confused by the identical looks of the two orange haired guys.

As the keyblade hit its mark, Kairi was close enough to feel what she had missed out on before she was close enough to distinguish the powerful aura of the heartless beast from another force. Ichigo was letting out an aura of immense power, but as great as it was, it was without any real restraints. He simply seemed to use it without really knowing that he did. Kairi caught the returning keyblade and sent it off once more as the creature turned to attack her. She felt something more about Ichigo that seemed a bit…off… he didn't seem entirely solid as she looked at him. She got the same feeling from the heartless. It was as if none of the two actually was there…

Ichigo turned towards Kairi in a surprised manner as his dark eyes followed the Falling Star key back to its wielder. Then he made a grimace as he saw the girl and the tall magician that had come to help him.

"What do you think you're doing? Get the hell out of here if you wanna' stay alive!" he burst out and jumped away from the gargantuan fist that came down right where he had been standing a moment before.

Kairi snorted and shot him an annoyed glare as she fueled her weapon with the light power inside her heart.

"We're here to help you and you'll need our help if you're ever going to get out of this fight alive!" she retorted as the Falling Star started to shine with a bright silver light. "Hauru!" she called out and the magician nodded in response, picking up a pinch of a lilac colored powder from one of the pouches he wore hanging from his belt, muttering something that only he could hear, before letting the powder fall from his hand as he ran, creating a strange pattern on the grass around the heartless. He ran as if carried by the wind and before the monster knew what was happening, Hauru was back at its front, having created a wide circle around it. He then turned to Kairi with urgency written in his entire face.

"Now! Before it moves!"

Kairi took three wide steps and jumped high in the air, getting a boost from the power her keyblade was filled with and with a summersault in the air, she landed with the key down, driving it hard into the ground right inside the magic circle and released the light stored within it. The Light Blast shook the ground, enhanced by the magic of Hauru's spell, it also lit up the sky with a blinding white light so intense it gave off the heat equivalent to a roaring fire.

Ichigo just stood back for a moment and gaped at the display of power, but he didn't let go of his sword, still keeping it ready. For some reason he didn't believe that this thing would be beaten so easily.

As the light faded, the monstrosity inside the circle was still standing there, only its body was cracking up, the black revealing a deeper darkness underneath the cracking shell: a darkness filled with yellow specks that told of an innumerous mass of smaller heartless that had taken residence inside the big one. The white mask then split in half, one part falling to the ground with a loud bang, turning into wafts of smoke as soon as it had landed. Two long antennas rolled out from behind the creature's neck as it turned its yellow eyes towards the two who had caused this damage, the half mask covering the right side of its face creating an odd image of a grinning ghost.

"Ha-Hauru…" Kairi stuttered and took a step away from the monster. "That thing's got more heartless inside of it!"

Hauru nodded solemnly as his eyes missed nothing.

"They are the _real_ heartless. They're using this other creature as a shell, parasiting on it… or perhaps…"

"Perhaps what?" Kairi asked with growing uncomfort as the monster started to move, slowly breaking the binding spell Hauru had put on it.

"It might be that the two parties have come together as a symbiotic creation…"

"Meaning?"

Hauru grimaced with displeasure and took a step back himself as he saw the beginning of a crack in the spell.

"They're allies. They work together to achieve what they want. The heartless craves the hearts and light of people, the other creature…"

"It's a hollow."

Kairi and Hauru both turned to look at Ichigo who came up to them, carrying his large sword leisurely over one shoulder. "The thing that those shadows have teamed up with, as you put it, is a hollow. The remains of a lost soul, an evil spirit, that seeks to take the souls of the living."

Hauru nodded in sudden understanding.

"Seems like they're two of a kind," he hummed and shot the soon free monster a worried look. "Talk about bad luck."

Ichigo stared grimly at Kairi and Hauru, his eyes telling of uncertainty as it came to his options of trusting or discarding the two of them.

"Who are you? And how come you can see me and this thing?"

Kairi blinked.

"You mean we shouldn't be able to?"

Ichigo was about to say something in response, when a thunder was heard and Hauru's spell fell under the pressure of the monstrosity inside the barrier.

"I guess he wants to play," Ichigo said, his face set as he swung his sword into position. "No more talking now. You know how to beat the shadow things inside of it?"

Kairi and Hauru nodded in response, the former raising her keyblade while the latter reached for another of his belt pouches.

"Good, then you focus on those and I'll bring down the hollow."

With that the three of them jumped into action as the monster spotted them and began to smash its big fist into the ground in a try to obliterate them. Ichigo went up front, jumped high and swung his sword home in a long slice along the full length of one of the arms as he descended from the high point of his jump. Kairi and Hauru went the other direction, aiming for the large crack in the creature's left thigh, where the most heartless were visible. As Kairi loaded her weapon with power, Hauru cast a spell to contain the shadows, rendering them unable to move as the strike raid hit its mark. But as the keyblade returned, the heartless that had vanished were quickly replaced by others and the crack in the thigh grew bigger. Another hit made the shell that was the leg fall to the ground, vanishing completely, as the mass of heartless started to pour out from the open wound like a flood of living black blood.

Kairi quickly ran away from where she had been standing, as the heartless instantly went for her brightly shining heart and Hauru followed her example, sending off compact balls of air to keep the shadows at a distance.

"There's no end to them!" Kairi called out in desperation as she tried hard to think of what to do.

"And this bastard just won't give up either," Ichigo huffed as he jumped aside to avoid another powerful blow of the giant's fist. "I think the shadows keep the hollow alive somehow, or else it would have been gone once the mask was cracked."

Kairi swung the keyblade in a wide slash around her, using the Light Scythe to take out even more of the enemies in the backwash of her attack.

"Why are the bad guys always so big and powerful?" she asked him with annoyance clear in her voice as she renewed the grip on her weapon.

"Because bad guys _love_ uneven fights. We just have to beat them at their own game," he replied with a crooked smile on his lips, looking for all the world like he actually enjoyed the thought of it all. "They wanna' win," he continued as he swung his large sword into position again, "but so do I, and I'm _way_ stronger than them."

Once again, Kairi felt that immense surge of power flow out of Ichigo as he gripped his sword… no… it was more than a sword, she realized. It was his _soul_. Sharpened into a weapon, making it easier to use in a fight, but still, what this strange guy was doing was basically risking all he had, to save people he didn't even know, from this evil spirit of this world. How he was doing it, she didn't know, but she was guessing, neither did he. He simply did what he could and what he thought was right, using whatever weapon he could to do so.

Suddenly Kairi came to realize that Ichigo's sword and her keyblade were very much alike, even though while his was a manifestation of his soul, her weapon was one of her heart. She looked at the Falling Star and noticed its unique shape, the spikes forming the key head shimmering like wet glass in the sunlight, reacting to her power-flow with a glow from within their cores. Ichigo's sword had seemed to grow as he'd released more of his soul's power, and as Kairi let more of her light go into the keyblade, the silvery spikes grew longer and sharper and she felt a new pattern for an attack taking shape in her mind as the keyblade responded to her acting.

With a firm grip on the leather clad hilt she stopped running away from the horde of heartless chasing her and turned on her heel, facing them with her shining keyblade at the ready.

"Here goes…" she mumbled as she let go of her restraints and the full power of her light rushed into the weapon, making the spikes at its top light up like flare rods, the light creating a soft glow that spread as she moved her arms back in a swing behind her back.

"Rain of stars!" she called out as she moved the keyblade back forward and the brightly shining spikes set off from the blade, raining over the mass of shadows in numerous flashes of light, each needle turning a number of heartless into black mist the instant it hit. As Kairi swung the blade back in the other direction, the spikes were re-collected, re-charged and ready to be sent off again in her second swing.

The body of the merged hollow-heartless began to tremble as the inner structure was wrecked by Kairi's success and Ichigo saw his chance to finish the thing off, swinging his sword across the lowered face of the monster and thus slicing the remains of the mask in two. The mask fell to the ground, leaving the heartless' face bare for an attack and Hauru grabbed a hold on Kairi's waist.

"Sorry about this, but you have to do it," he said to her as she turned to him with a surprised look on her face. With a high leap, Hauru called for the air to solidify underneath his feet, weaving the spell faster than he'd ever done it before, willing it into success as he started to climb the invisible steps that lifted the two of them to the location of the creature's head.

Kairi noticed the flow of dark energy around the body of the heartless and spotted the weakest point, just like Hauru had, once the mask had fallen. Without saying anything about it, Kairi raised the Falling Star and aimed it towards the heartless crest in the middle of the creature's forehead.

A bright beam of silver light shot forth from the blade, connected with the heartless and exploded into a burst of light. Hauru took the both of them down slowly as the shimmering remains of the attack fell to the grass below and the massive beast that had been there only a moment ago was turning into dust. Nothing was left of it as Kairi and Hauru touched the ground again.

"I didn't know you could do that," Kairi said once Hauru let go of her waist.

"Do what? Walk on air? It's really not that hard," Hauru replied with a grin, glad and relieved that his magic had worked this time.

Ichigo walked up to them while sheathing his sword, the expression in his face going from grim to surprised as he seemingly relaxed for the first time since they'd met.

"You two did pretty well there. I've never seen anything quite like it though. And how come you know how to get rid of the shadows? I've been fighting them for weeks without doing much more than momentarily harming them somewhat. "

Kairi felt dizzy as she turned to answer him and took a deep breath, letting the keyblade go back inside her.

"Let's just say we're not from around here," she said with a weak smile, before closing her eyes, the exhaustion taking out its price on her as she fell to the ground and embraced the rest offered by unconsciousness.


	26. Part 2: Chapter 10 Magic and science

**Chapter 10:2: Magic and science**

"_Have you lost your way, living in the shadow of the messes that you made and so it goes, everything inside your circle starts to overflow." (Aftermath,_ Adam Lambert)

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><p>"A keyhole?" Hermione and Donatello asked simultaneously, both curious as to what he meant by that statement. They walked around the construction of the Stargate and found Riku sitting on his heels as he brushed off an old base stone that had been hidden by a high brush of grass until he'd ripped it away. The stone block was about the size of a large chest, and on it was engraved a fine pattern of swirls and silhouettes of upright walking cats surrounding a very typical and large keyhole.<p>

"That's… odd," Hermione noted as Donatello bent down to look closer at it.

"I wonder what it leads to…" the turtle mumbled, but was cut off in his inspection of the artifact as Riku pushed him gently aside and rose to his feet, calling out his keyblade. It had changed since the last time he'd called it out, and Riku noticed the change in weight, making him look at it. The hilt was a plain smooth silver rod continuing up to the blade. From the bottom the hilt bent upwards I one soft curve up and over the junction of hilt and blade to continue up the blade in a spiral ending at the key head. At the junction of hilt and blade, there was a large lime green cat's eye, seeming to look at him with a slit pupil much like the eye on his original blade. The blade itself was a silver white metal rod ending in a smooth curve making out the top of the key head. The head was made up by a flat silver wire in the shape of a wide spread two-dimensional paw with extended claws at each of the four "toes" serving as key pegs.

"What happened to your keyblade?" Hermione asked in surprise as she too noticed the new look of the weapon.

Riku gave her a crooked smile as he aimed it towards the keyhole.

"It's changed appearance due to Yuki's key chain."

Riku closed his eyes and let the keyblade do the job, not so sure himself as to what he was supposed to do to lock the world away from the heartless. The weapon reacted to his command and a silver light beam shot from the top of the keyblade and connected with the keyhole on the stone. A loud clicking sound was heard and suddenly the world felt a bit more at ease around them, the darkness chased away as the heart of the world was safe from attack.

"Now, let's get going before we turn back into cats again," he said as soon as he opened his eyes and both his friends nodded in agreement, not feeling like staying any longer in this world, now that they knew they'd been able to actually save it.

* * *

><p>Hermione knew something was wrong the moment she opened her eyes. The travel through the Stargate had been pretty much the same as the previous one, but the world they'd ended up in… now that was a completely different thing.<p>

She looked around herself as she tried to keep her travel related nausea in control. She soon determined her eyes weren't fooling her, and that the place was in fact pitch black, or close to. With a sigh she pulled out her wand and whispered out the illumination spell she had learned by heart the moment she read about it.

"Lumos!"

A bright ball of white light showed up at the tip of her wand and she kept it steady like a flashlight in order to get a good look around.

"A basement? Come on…" she muttered as she noticed the heaps of scrap metal, the many wooden boxes and put away tools and what-nots of various kinds that were piled up against the walls of the room. She turned to look at the gate and noted that it was a lot smaller than the former ones she'd seen and the symbols seemed different.

What started to worry her more though, was that neither Riku, nor Donatello seemed to have come through with her.

"Guys?" she asked into the air, hoping for an answer, but was disappointed as no one responded to her inquiry. "Well this stinks…" She took out the "useful" book from her cloak and quickly asked a question to it.

"What should I do now?"

She then opened it and awaited the answer to be fully written on the formerly empty pages.

"_Go up the stairs. Friends await outside this room. Friends in need."_

Hermione quirked a brow at this. "But I went in _before_ the others, surely they should show up _after_ me, not before me…"

"_Other friends. Hurry,_" was the simple reply.

Shrugging and breathing out an "ok, whatever", Hermione closed the book and put it back in the cloak pocket where she'd taken it and started walking up the stairs that she found around the corner from where she stood. With a determined expression in her face, she then let the light spell fade and left the room through the door at the top of the stairs.

A moment later, the gate opened once more and let through Donatello and Riku, both landing in a pile on the floor, Riku getting a close up confirmation that a turtle shell was indeed hard.

"Huff!" Riku let out as the air was beat out of him and Donatello slowly moved to get him off his back shell.

"Sorry about the hard landing, Riku," the turtle apologized as he helped Riku up from the floor while the silverette tried to catch his breath.

"Well… who knew… we'd end up… in a pile?" Riku finally managed to get out as air once more was let through to his lungs. "But… where are we?"

Donatello shrugged and took a look around, then realized something more alarming than the darkness.

"Where's Hermione?"

* * *

><p>"Who…the hell… are you?"<p>

Hermione blinked at the light of day that met her as she stepped outside. She had gone through the various rooms of the two floor house in a search for someone or something that could tell her of where she was, not to mention in order to find the "friends in need" that the useful book had mentioned. When she'd found none, she'd opened up the front door, an old but well oiled thing with a spruced window at the top. Had she looked through that window she might not have been so surprised by the kid standing before her, his hand raised as if he was just about to knock at the door when she opened it.

She took a long hard look at him and figured that maybe she wouldn't have seen him anyway.

"Are you deaf? Who the hell are you and why are you in the old woman's house when she isn't? And where's Winry?" the kid half yelled at her, more or less steaming as he tried to keep his temper in check.

With her eyebrows going slowly down over her eyes and halfway meeting in a grim look of annoyance, she corrected her first impression. This wasn't a kid. He was way too rude. And something about him told her that he was a bit older than he looked.

His length was mostly what had fooled her at first. He was in fact almost two heads shorter than her, thin in his build and sporting a still quite youthful face, though marred with inner turmoil that suggested that he had gone through some really bad things in his life. He had peculiar golden eyes that matched his blonde hair, worn in a long braid at his neck. His clothes were worn and a bit shabby from travel and rough usage, but had a clean cut and pure colors underneath the dirt, the ink black shirt and trousers standing out from the deep red long coat. The white gloves on his hands were another surprise. If he'd behaved differently, she was sure that she would probably have taken him for an intelligent and noble grown up, if but a little short. Now though, she found him to act more or less like the small child his size said he was.

"Listen, _bonehead_, have you ever thought of greeting strangers more kindly instead of jumping to conclusions and calling names?" she bit off as he was about to repeat his former outburst.

He blinked, surprised by her approach.

"Good, now shut up for a second and I'll tell you who I am," Hermione continued. "I have no idea of where I am more exactly, and I came here through that heap of junk impression of gate that is collecting dust in the basement. I don't know anything more than that. I'm just as surprised as you to find that no one's here."

The blond before her actually seemed regretful of his behavior and put a hand to his neck, rubbing slowly as he thought about what she'd said.

"You see, big brother? You can't go on expecting everyone to be bad people! Try asking nicely first, that's way more efficient."

Hermione looked up at the sound of the new voice. She expected to see a younger version of the guy in front of her, but had to blink in surprise as this wasn't the case. Instead, she found herself in need to look further up to see the top of the person who'd spoken. The voice came from an old style suit of armor, helmet and iron gloves and all.

"I'm sorry for my brother, he's really a nice person, he's just a bit hot tempered and we've traveled for quite a number of days now. "

"Err, sure. I'm guessing you know the people living here?" Hermione replied as she searched her mind for the words she could use in order to get the information she needed.

The blond guy answered this time.

"Yes. The old woman Rockbell used to look after us as kids and Winry is her granddaughter. They… " Suddenly he straightened himself and blinked, as if he just realized something. "Hey, you said you came through _what_?"

"The gate in the basement, why?"

"That thing _works?_"

Hermione was about to give him an answer, however, she didn't get the time to do so as a dark pool of shadowy black suddenly appeared behind the guy in armor.

"Crap…" she muttered under her breath and swiftly pulled out her wand as she leapt forward to land right beside the armored guy. "Look out!" she called to him and fired off a spell at the large heartless that had now raised itself up on its feet behind him.

The creature erupted in specks of black, but she knew it would soon gather itself again and come back. Aiming her wand towards another heartless that had arrived, she fired off another spell, sending this one high into the air and crashing way off from where they were standing.

"What the… _those_ things again!" the blond muttered behind Hermione and she realized that they had seen the heartless before as well, sending yet another realization through her mind: this world did indeed need the help of Riku's keyblade. So where was he? She soon got other things to think about though, as the heartless started to gather in a great number around them.

"Do you have any kind of weapon to fight them with, 'cause if you do, I wouldn't mind a little help here!" she called out to the two and was surprised by the blond guy's expression as he told his brother to get behind him and stay out of his way. He was… not afraid. Just dead serious and set on getting things done. With a quick flexing of his hands, he then rushed to her side, his entire aura having changed. The guy she now saw before her jumping into action was by no means a small boy. He was a soldier.

Then he did something to surprise her even more: he fell to his knees, slapping his white gloved hands together before putting them to the ground. With a flash of light the ground rose to the movement of his hands until he stood up, holding a golden spear, the patch of earth where he'd had his hands now endowered with a shallow pit.

With the spear in his hand, he then started to fight off the heartless one by one, efficiently knocking them away and somewhat even harming them, although not as much as she had done with her spells.

"I didn't know you knew how to use magic!" she said with surprise obvious in her voice as she came up beside him.

"It's not _magic_! It's _science_!" he replied with a bit of that same steaming temper that he'd shown her when they first met.

Hermione shrugged and aimed her wand at a new kind of heartless as it came up close to him from behind. The thing was wearing parts of armor on its feet and arms, one arm actually sporting what looked like a spiked cannon ball on a chain instead of a hand. The head was rounded as the ordinary Shadow's, but the antennas were long and back bent like those of the Neo Shadow. Size-wise though, it was somewhere in-between those two kinds. Hermione made a quick calculation as she chose a spell that would most probably work against this foe, seeing as the armor probably strengthened its defenses.

"Expelliarmus!"

As the spell hit its target, the heartless was sent through the air, away from them, but not as far off as the other one had gone and Hermione decided to try something tougher the next time.

"That, though, is some interesting technique," the blond noted as he swung around and in the process took out another Shadow that came at him.

"Magic," Hermione replied wittingly and aimed another spell at a Neo Shadow as it jumped to get at her. "But it won't last long. We need a keyblade to finish them off!"

"A what?" the blond asked in confusion as he carefully avoided the heartless that reached for him and instead hit it with his spear, cutting it in half as he did so. "As far as I know, I've managed to get away from these things before without a key-thing…"

"Keyblade. And that's just the thing. You've been able to get away from them, but you haven't defeated them, right? A keyblade can do that," Hermione informed him as she threw a more powerful spell at the returning armored heartless, this time actually managing to make it explode.

"What is a keyblade then and how come you know so much about these things?"

Just then, a flash of light shot between them as a silvery white weapon spiraled towards a large heartless with a belly the shape of a large balloon. The heartless had its back against the oncoming weapon and as it hit the large backside of the creature, the heartless was dissolved into specks of dust that slowly drifted upwards and faded away as a heart shape was seen floating upwards and disappeared as well.

The weapon then returned to the thrower and Hermione and the blond beside her both turned to see who it was.

"Did you have to start the fun without us?" Riku said, clutching the Cat's Eye keyblade in his right hand as he ran towards them, fueling the weapon with more magic as he went.

"Fun?" Hermione replied, but she couldn't keep the relief out of her voice. "Does it look like I'm having fun to you?"

"Less talking, more fighting, those guys seem to have noticed the keyblade," Donatello added as he rushed past the slightly shocked blond guy and got in a full frontal hit on a Neo Shadow, sending it through a tree trunk.

"You have a lot to explain when this is over," the blond guy muttered as he once more slapped his hands together, and put them to the ground, his spear having been thrown out of his hands as a heartless had got too close to him. Suddenly the ground shook and lifted in a large pillar, forming a moving wall that slapped right down on a large group of the heartless.

Hermione stared at him. "Likewise," she said before she got her mind back into the fighting.

Now that Riku was there, the fight was quickly turning in their favor and the heartless were soon nowhere to be seen, though all of them more or less knew that the shadows would be back sooner or later.

The short blond guy brushed off dust from his red coat, muttering under his breath about how hard it was to keep his clothes clean out on the countryside. The guy in armor, who Hermione had noticed fighting off the shadows as best as he could using his hands and feet in some kind of martial arts technique, now came walking towards them with a hollow clanking.

"Brother, are you alright?" he asked as he got to the muttering blond.

His brother was in fact looking like he was about to burst with anger, and Hermione could almost see the aggravation steam off of him. But then he inhaled slowly and gave his brother a nod, looking at him with a wide grin on his lips and mischief in his golden eyes.

"Of course! Those things can't touch me!"

Hermione grimaced at this and made an inclination towards Donatello and Riku who came up behind her. "Hey, if it weren't for us, you two would have been goners," she said and stared at the blond as he turned to her with a scowl on his face. Whoever he was, his temper sure did shift fast.

"Ok, thank you for the help, not that it was needed, but still."

Hermione felt like slapping him, but held back. In a way the obnoxious brat reminded her of another blond she knew to be both rude and ungrateful as well.

"Hey, you had some really neat moves there," Donatello suddenly said and walked up to the armored guy, sheathing his bo-staff into its holder on his back-shell as he went. "Where've you learned how to move so smoothly in such an outfit?"

"Err… I've sort of always… trained in this…" the guy replied, his voice uncertain. "Uhm, if you don't mind me asking, but, what are you, more precisely? Are you a chimera?"

Donatello blinked, a bit surprised at the assumption, then shook his head.

"Nah, I'm just a mutated turtle, but I can see why you would think differently. My name's Donatello," he said with a smile and put his hand out for the other to take.

"Alphonse Elric," the other said and took the offered hand and shook it in a firm grip. "And that rude person over there is my big brother, Edward."

"I'm _not_ rude!" Edward replied and stared at his brother, who stared back, towering over him.

"But you are, brother, and I think you should be a bit nicer to these people, since they helped us with the shadows. Maybe they can help figure out what's happened to granny Rockbell and Winry."

Edward huffed and looked from Donatello to the other two, then back to Alphonse.

"You win Al, but don't think I'm going to kneel or anything."

"A simple thank you would do, really," Riku said with a crooked smile. "I'm Riku," he continued and repeated the friendly gesture that Donatello had shown Alphonse.

Edward seemed to think over his options, before grabbing the outstretched hand in a firm grip that made Riku wince.

"Ed. I'm a state alchemist, and I've never seen a weapon like yours before. How did you make it? Steel or silver?"

"I didn't exactly make it. I call it out from inside of me. It's made of the strength inside a heart," Riku replied and got his aching hand back, shaking it slightly to get the blood flowing to his fingers again. "You've got quite a grip," he commented and let his keyblade disappear, seeing as how there was no more threat.

Edward looked at him with a strange expression of deep thought in his golden eyes, absentmindedly rolling his right wrist as if to get some tension out of it. "You three have some explaining to do," he said calmly and looked at Donatello. "You say you're not a chimera, but still you appear to be one," he then turned to Riku, "and you have a weapon that can appear and disappear out of thin air without any circles or other binding formulas," then finally his eyes stayed on Hermione, "and this annoying girl here claim not to know alchemy, but still use something that looks like it and call it magic."

"For your information, I don't find what you call alchemy to be even slightly close to what I know about it. And my name's _Hermione_."

Edward didn't seem to have anything to say against the claim and only nodded at her. "I think we all better talk this through, but first off, I need to get some stuff done inside, so why don't we all get in there?"

"Sounds good to me," Donatello said and together with Alphonse he started walking towards the old house, soon followed by the older brother Elric, Riku and Hermione.


	27. Part 2: Chapter 11 Demons and monsters

_Once again we're back in the world of Inu-Yasha and Sora's group. I'm sorry for the delay, I've been a bit absent-minded since I got my N3DS and the KH3D... :) But here are a number of chapters to make up for the long wait. Please review and tell me what you think! /Silverspegel_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11:2: Demons and monsters <strong>

* * *

><p>"<em>I fear who I am becoming, I feel that I'm losing the struggle within. I can no longer restrain it, my strength it is fading, I have to give in…Fear of the darkness, growing inside of me, that one day will come to life. … Hold down your head now, just let me pass by. Don't feed my fear, if you don't want it out. I fear who I am becoming, I feel that I'm losing all beauty within. I can no longer restrain it, my strength it is fading, I have to give in..." <em>

_(_Within Temptation_, "It's the fear")_

* * *

><p>"Where <em>is<em> he?"

Sora looked up from the bowl of rice he was eating and saw the expected worry in Kagome's face. Kagome had met them all at the home of the village priestess, Kaede. While Kaede was a very tranquil old woman with an aura of elderly wisdom and power around her, Kagome was something different. She was a teenager, somewhere between Will's and Sora's age, dressed in what to Sora looked like a sort of modern day school uniform: the short skirt in emerald green and the long sleeved shirt white with cuffs and sailor collar in a matching green, with a red scarf hanging down over her chest. Her long black hair hung loose over her back, swaying with her movement as she impatiently paced back and forth in the small center room of the house. She hadn't even noticed that one of her knee-high stockings had slipped down to hang at her ankle.

"Calm down, Kagome, I'm sure he's fine," Sango said in a calm voice, but her eyes betrayed her worry.

"Yeah, don't bother about that stupid dog! He's always late anyway!" Shippo added and wolfed down a hot dumpling as Kaede held it out to him. The little fox demon had made peace with the monk and the hunter for the moment and Sora had learned that the little guy was full of pranks, even though he never meant any harm by it.

"There's no need to be rude!" Will reprimanded him and gave the little demon a slap over his head.

"Oow! But he is!" Shippo objected grumpily, but he didn't say anything more.

"How long has he been gone?" Sora asked and put down his bowl, his blue eyes now intent on Kagome, who stopped in her pacing and turned to look back at him.

"He left this morning and said he'd just be taking a short trip around the area to check on the shadow activity. He should have been back even before you guys showed up," Kagome explained, worry clear in her dark eyes. "I wonder what's keeping him…"

"Inu-Yasha can take care of himself, dear," Kaede cut in as she entered the house, after having been out in the village on an errand. "Don't forget who he is. He is much stronger than any of those beasts that we've seen so far."

Kagome nodded in silence, but she didn't seem to fully agree with the old priestess. Nonetheless she sighed and sat down between Sora and Will.

"I just wish I knew what he's doing. It's not safe out there, not even for demons."

Rin, who'd been sitting next to Sango, cuddling with Kirara, got on her feet and walked over to Kagome with a soft smile on her lips.

"Lady Kagome shouldn't worry. Lord Sesshomaru is fighting too. He won't let anybody hurt him," she said with great confidence and gave the older girl a hug.

Miroku huffed, but didn't comment on the little girl's statement, but Sora was pretty sure he knew what the monk thought. Sesshomaru hadn't exactly given the impression of liking his brother all that much. With a shrug Sora put the thought to rest, figuring he couldn't know anything for sure about these people just yet, least of all Sesshomaru, who he'd barely even spoken to. But Kagome's worry was obvious and he didn't like the fact that this Inu-Yasha person hadn't come back yet. Besides, it was getting dark outside and the heartless, being made of shadows, were at their strongest during the night.

"Well," Sora finally said and stretched out his legs from their crossed position. Sitting on the floor like this sure did press on his calves and ankles. "I guess we better go find him before it gets any darker."

As he got to his feet, Kagome turned her head to him, her eyes now telling of an iron will instead of her previous worry.

"Then I'm coming with you! I know the surroundings here better than you do and I just can't sit around here doing nothing!" She was on her feet before anyone could object and Luffy smiled, giving her a thumbs up.

"That's the spirit girl! If ya' wan't something done, you should do it!" he said, adding a short laugh.

Will shook her head at his folly, but got to her feet as well and gave Kagome an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

"I guess there's nothing stopping you, but I sure hope you know what you're doing. The heartless are no picnic."

Kagome smiled back, though her smile didn't touch her eyes.

"Don't worry," she said and bent down to pick up a bow and a quiver half filled with arrows. "I've got my bow and my arrows. I've managed to drive them back before with it."

Sora cocked an eyebrow at this information, but he didn't say anything. If Kagome could use such ordinary weapons to keep the heartless at bay, she must have some extraordinary power as well to spice it up. Like the way Leon had been able to use his gunblade on them. A part of the heart or soul intertwined with the weapon, making it stronger.

Sango and Miroku was about to object to letting them go off by themselves, but Kaede told them off, pointing out to them that the village needed protection as well and with Kagome going off with Sora and the others, Sango and the monk were the only remaining who could stand a chance if the shadows decided to attack. Shippo started to point out his presence, but was quickly persuaded that he was indeed in as much need of protection as the villagers, young as he was.

The forest around the village was silent, just like it had been during the day. The further they got from the houses, the stronger they could all feel the heavy presence in the air, the thing that Sango had called "miasma".

Will shivered in her thin jacket and looked around with her big brown eyes wide open in order to see as much as she could in the growing darkness. The shades of twilight made it hard to discern what was a tree and what was not. She hadn't transformed yet, mostly because she didn't want to attract the heartless and bring them all to their attention. For the same reason, Sora hadn't called out his keyblade, but he kept the link to it ready in his mind.

Luffy yawned and stretched his arms over his head.

"Man, this is boring… I thought you said there were heartless out here," he mumbled as he looked around, trying to see anything similar to the creatures moving in the growing darkness that surrounded them. ,Sora ignored the pirate's comment and turned to Kagome, who scanned the area with a tense expression in her face.

Suddenly, she froze in her step, her entire body seeming to freeze up and her hair lifting slightly as the expression in her face went from focused to horrified. Sora called forth the Bear Claw Key in a flash of soft light and Will reacted as well, the Heart of Kandrakar sparkling as its transforming magic finished. Luffy lifted an eyebrow in wondering, then felt a shiver in his skin that told him to get ready.

"What is it Kagome?" Sora asked the frightened girl as he noticed sweat breaking through on her forehead.

"It's… something… something's happened to him… I can _feel_ it! Something bad!"

Suddenly she started running in a new direction, putting an arrow to her bow as she ran. Sora and the others quickly followed, ready to aid her should it be needed. Kagome's senses and knowledge of the forest lead them through the darkening area and Sora thought he saw a faint white glow coming from something hidden underneath her shirt, somewhere around the area of her chest. He wondered what it was but put the question on a mental "to do"-pile in his head, saving it for later when things would have calmed down. For the moment all they could do was run and try not to stumble over tree roots and what-not.

When they came out into a clearing, Sora suddenly recognized the place they'd arrived to. It was the large tree close by the well where he, Will and Luffy had been this morning. On one of the large roots sticking up from the ground, with his back against the gargantuan tree trunk, sat a figure clad in what looked like big, bright red clothes of a soft and light material that was softly heaving as if moved by an invisible breeze. The lowered head was covered in a thick, long mane of silvery white hair. Looking closer, Sora noticed a pair of small, pointed dog ears sticking up at the top of the head, almost blending completely with the hair in color.

Kagome had stopped at the foot of the root, her face pale and her hands shaking when she squeezed them harder around her bow and arrow. At her feet were a number of black beads and what seemed to be white teeth charms in disarray, as if they'd been a necklace that had been torn and thrown away. She slowly looked down at the beads and then back up at the un-moving figure on the tree root.

Sora felt the air thicken and could almost see the patterns of a set trap, but he didn't know what to do, not sure of what was about to happen. He made sure that he was close to Will and Luffy, and the others did the same, following him as he made a move to get closer to Kagome before something happened to her.

Without a warning, Kagome suddenly let her weapon down on the ground and rushed up the root, her eyes glistening with held back tears.

"Kagome, what…?" Sora began, then he heard her desperate cry.

"_INU-YASHA!_"

She threw herself forward, falling to her knees and scrubbing them against the rough bark as she lost her balance for a second.

"Don't you dare be hurt, you hear? _Baka_!" she huffed as she crawled the last inches to where the hanyo was. She leaned forward, reaching out a hand as if to lift his head, when suddenly he lifted it himself, shivering and weak as it seemed. Glowing yellow animal eyes met dark brown and a slight grin on the half-demon's face flashed a sharp fang.

"What are you going on crying about? I'm just…resting for a moment…" he croaked in a hushed voice, pausing as he coughed and made an involuntary motion with a claw-tipped hand towards his chest.

Kagome noticed the motion and forced him to straighten up against the trunk with a firm hand on his shoulder. "You _are_ hurt! What happened?" she asked as she forced the loose shirt open over his chest, revealing a nasty looking wound.

Sora used a bit of his energy reserve and made a high jump up to where they were positioned, readying his magic for a healing spell. Inu-Yasha made a grimace, his ears going flat against his head as he noticed Sora, making a move as if to move Kagome out of the way.

"Wait, I'm a friend!" Sora called out as he noticed what Inu-Yasha was about to do. "I just want to help you, ok?"

After a muttering growling from the hanyo's side and a quick remark from Kagome, Sora got permission to do what he had intended to do. The wound, he now noticed, was more than just a wound. It was a hole going straight through the guy's ribcage, front to back, and the cut edges were black as if they'd been burnt. Sora figured that the demon part of Inu-Yasha had to be a pretty strong force, if he could suffer such a wound and still be alive. He added a bit of extra strength to the healing magic as he set the spell loose, pointing the keyblade towards the half-demon's chest. The green light had barely had any time to fade off, before Sora felt an immense wall of energy entering the clearing.

"And thus, the trap shuts…" he mumbled and spun around, getting into a protective position in front of Kagome and the now quickly recuperated Inu-Yasha. He was about to get an attack up, when to his surprise, he recognized the man stepping into the clearing.

"Sesshomaru? What…" he began to ask what the demon was doing there, when Inu-Yasha interrupted him.

"It's _not_ him! The shadows got to him, don't listen to what he says!" Inu-Yasha spat out with an underlying growl forming in his throat as he got to his feet in an instant, stepping up to stand beside Sora.

Sesshomaru kocked an eyebrow at the sight of his brother, but his face was otherwise emotionless.

"Ho? So you're still alive, pup? How annoying. I must say I did think you would have died from that last blow." He raised his hand and inspected the sharp white claws. "I guess this body has a weak spot for you after all then."

Now Sora noticed the difference in the demon's appearance. First of all, his voice sounded distant and hollow, secondly he had suddenly grown a second arm, something that Sora hadn't noticed at first due to the long wide sleeve of the shirt. But most of all, he felt the presence of a strong heartless. When a breeze passed by it lifted the sleeves of Sesshomaru's shirt a little, revealing the new arm to be all black, oozing darkness from its shadowy matter. The demon's eyes shone in a brighter yellow than before and Sora could bet his own heart on the fact that somewhere on the demon's body he would find a heartless crest.

This was bad. It was like it had been with Denahi, only this time, the heartless in control was stronger and so was the body. Way much stronger.

"Don't talk rubbish!" Inu-Yasha bit back at the heartless. "If you don't watch yourself he'll kill you right off for even implying it! He's just pissed that he can't take the honor of finishing me off himself!"

Sora blinked at the harsh words, but he heard the truth in them as Inu-Yasha spoke them out loud.

The faux demon grinned wide, showing the sharp fangs in a manner that was most unlike the original Sesshomaru's ways of acting.

"You make no sense, _hanyo_. Is it maybe so, that you envy him? Are you regretting fighting me? Tell me, truthfully, wouldn't you just do anything for the power that I've given your brother? You, who are too weak to even_ begin_ dreaming of having a chance of beating me? If he hadn't shown up, getting in front of you like that, I most definetly would have settled for you. How does that make you feel?"

"Wait, is that true, Inu-Yasha? Did Sesshomaru try to save you?" Kagome asked with a slight doubt in her voice.

Sora could hear Inu-Yasha grit his teeth, and he felt a surge of anger inside his own chest as he turned his eyes to his friends that were standing only a few steps away from the heartless demon. It was time to put an end to this. He just needed to find out where the crest was located…

"Will! Luffy!" he called out as he charged his keyblade with power. He didn't have to explain any further, before the two beneath him moved forward, Will charging up her flashes of energy and Luffy making the first move on the enemy with an outstretching fist moving at the speed of a cannonball.

As Sora jumped down from the root he'd been standing on, Luffy's fist was smacked away by the black arm and the heartless moved forward, towards Will. The guardian barely made it out of the way by lifting from the ground and shooting off her ball of lightning from above instead, setting the demon a bit off course, but not harming him. Sora swung the Bear Claw Key as he closed in on the enemy and an arc of white light shot off from the keyblade and hit the heartless straight in the chest, sending it back a number of steps. But it was still standing up, and the grin on its lips only grew wider, until it was impossibly wide, and the fangs grew in length as the eyes took a more outdrawn appearance. Pools of black started to appear on the ground around him.

"What's happening?" Sora asked as Inu-Yasha landed beside him.

Inu-Yasha grunted and ridded himself of the torn shirt when he couldn't manage to close it entirely.

"You should all just get the hell out of here. He's using his demon form. It makes him stronger."

Sora swallowed hard at the information. How on all the worlds could someone of that strength turn even stronger? And to top it off, the demon heartless had called for re-enforcements, new heartless rising from the pools of darkness around him.

"I'm not leaving," Sora said as soon as his thoughts cleared from the short moment of overwhelming doubt and fear. "It's because of things like that creature inside your brother that I'm here. I'm meant to fight them and so far I've won my battles. I'm not about to leave just because it gets a little rough."

A loud snort was all that came from Inu-Yasha as a reply, but Sora saw a shine of approval in his golden eyes.

"Any idea as to _how_ we're supposed to beat him?" Will asked as she came down behind them.

Not being one to give up easy, Luffy kept the fists flying, moving them fast enough to make the movement blurry to the others and creating an illusion of a hundred fists or more. But only a few hit the target, and all it did was annoy the heartless and prolonging the demon's transformation by a second or so.

Sesshomaru's body was growing and the long boa of fur suddenly blended with his hair and in a flowing re-shaping, the demon fell to all fours and just like that the transformation was completed. Before them stood a gigantic white dog with flowing long fur that looked almost like wisps of clouds. The only defection in the creature was the shadow-created black front paw and the blood red eyes that glowed with a hunger for terror.

"Whoooha! Your brother's a _dog_?" Luffy commented as he skipped back a few steps to get a better view of the enemy. "He's _huge_!"

Inu-Yasha snorted. "Feh, he's not that hard to beat."

Will and Sora turned their eyes to him in surprise.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Sora asked.

"With this," Inu-Yasha said and grabbed at a worn sword hilt by his side. Sora only now noticed the old sword sheath hanging by the half-demon's hip. He was about to comment that he didn't have much faith in a sword that looked like it would fall apart if he drew it, but he quickly kept the comment in, as the sword was actually drawn. In a flash of light and with a slight thundering sound, the sword transformed into a much larger weapon, shining of a white bone-like material. The sword was more or less as long as Inu-Yasha was tall, yet the half-demon swung it as if it was nothing but air in is his hands.

"Oooh, fancy trick! I want one!" Luffy exclaimed as he gawked over the weapon.

"Are you sure it's enough?" Will asked as she threw a look on the glaring demon dog in front of them. The demon and the smaller heartless were watching them in silence, the larger one planning his moves, certain of his victory.

"Who do you think cut off his arm?" Inu-Yasha asked with a smirk and then turned his face upwards. "Hey, you sorry excuse for a flea-market! It isn't over yet!" he yelled out before he rushed towards the beast's paws, weaving his way through the smaller heartless as they started towards him.

"You honestly think you can win over _me_?" the giant dog thundered with a magnified voice. Then, as Inu-Yasha jumped up, the dog-shaped beast lifted his white front paw and smacked it at the half-demon, missing only because Inu-Yasha had re-directed his jump in mid-air and used the paw as a new ground to jump off from. He raised the sword above his head and slashed downwards as the weapon hit flesh. He cut through sinews and scraped bone on his way down, but the dog only kept grinning and as Inu-Yasha stepped away, it laughed. While Sora and his friends watched, the long wound closed itself up magically and within the blink of an eye, it was as if he'd never been attacked.

Suddenly the shadows standing idly around the demon dog moved forward in attack, and Sora, Will and Luffy moved in to take care of them. Inu-Yasha growled in agitation at his brother's new abilities to heal and repeated his move. Sora saw what he was doing and went in beside him, adding all the power he thought he could spare to the attack he made himself. A rain of white light arcs flooded the creature they fought, before Inu-Yasha's large sword once more cut through its flesh. And yet again, the wounds healed.

Will took out a close by heartless, then lifted off the ground, creating a field of energy large enough to cover her entire body, sending it off in a gigantic blast that even made the giant demon take a step backwards. But the attack hadn't hurt it, and as Will charged up to attack again, the dog cut her to it by opening the mouth wide and releasing a large wall of black fire that hit her off guard and un-protected. Sora caught her when she fell, landing hard on his back himself from the weight of his friend as she landed in his arms. He performed the healing spell as quickly as he could, but even after her wounds had healed, Will was still weak and Sora leaned her against a tree nearby so that she could rest. Kagome suddenly appeared at his side, having slid down the root to pick up her dropped bow and arrow while they all had kept the heartless busy.

"I can keep her safe until she recovers, you go out there and help Inu-Yasha," she said, readied an arrow on the bow and gave him a stare demanding him to get going. "Hurry!"

As he turned back to do as told, Luffy was suddenly flying past him, crashing into the largest tree with a cracking sound in the bark. In the corner of his eye, Sora saw Kagome send off a glowing arrow at a heartless, and as he turned to look, the arrow hit its target, making the creature disappear in a cloud of black smoke. Reassured that Kagome indeed was capable of fighting the shadows off, Sora turned his attention back to Luffy. The pirate seemed unharmed, but he was barely able to stand up straight as Sora helped him down from the imprint he'd made in the tree. He healed him and placed him beside Will as he fell asleep. He gave Kagome a grateful smile and nod of recognition, before he returned to the battle.

"Any ideas?" Sora asked Inu-Yasha as he returned to his side a moment later. The half-demon grimaced and spat out some blood. He was covered in small cuts and bruises and he seemed a bit worn out, but he was still standing strong.

"Plenty. And you?" he grunted in reply.

"I need to find the heartless crest. If I do, all I have to do is break it and Sesshomaru will be freed from the heartless controlling him," Sora said as he charged up his weapon. He felt he was starting to get weak, having used up too much magic in too short a time. He went through his plan with Inu-Yasha as they delivered another attack and avoided the responding hits of black fire and smashing paws.

Inu-Yasha suddenly threw his sword as the beast left its chest wide open and the large weapon pierced through the chest muscles like butter and for the first time since the battle began, they could notice that the demon dog got hurt. It roared out in pain and lashed with its head off and on in a try to get to the menace in its chest. Sora jumped high and used the beast's leg to get a new upwards boost, somersaulting through the air as he made a rough landing on its shoulder. But the beast was moving violently and Sora lost his balance before he got any further up. Before he fell, though, he spotted what he'd been looking for: the crest was on the dog's back!

Landing in a dodge-roll, Sora was soon back on his feet, if but a tad dizzy. With one of his hands he absentmindedly wiped away what proved to be blood from a cut in his forehead. In order for the blood not to get in his eyes, Sora made a quick healing of the cut, and felt his magical reserves almost being drained. He had to finish this fight fast or he would pretty surely end up a dead keyblade wielder.

"Are you alright?" Inu-Yasha asked as he turned to look at him. "You're looking quite pale."

"I'm fine," Sora lied and called his weapon back to his hand. "But if we don't beat that thing fast, I'm not gonna' be for very long."

Suddenly the beast dog stopped its thrusting and they both heard a loud cracking sound coming from the sword in its chest, before the weapon fell to the ground in shatters.

"Shit, that's not good…" Inu-Yasha muttered. "I'll keep him busy, but you better break that crest thing _fast_."

Sora didn't wait for any explanations. He felt the need to get it over with himself. He was worried for his friends and Inu-Yasha wasn't looking very well. He knew his magical reserves were down to a low, almost invisible level and if he was to do something powerful, he would probably have to cross that dangerous line that he had tried to forget all about. He had to wait until the very last minute to use what magic he had if he was ever going to make this.

Inu-Yasha suddenly dug his claws deep into his own chest, pulling them out soaked with his blood. In the next moment he threw the red fluid off his claws, doing something with it that turned it into sharp blades, cutting deep into the flesh of the heartless demon. Sora didn't wait. He repeated his former jump, only this time he kept himself on the backside of the beast, thus getting a slightly easier climb towards the crest on the back. The crest was small on the wide back of the beast, but Sora spotted it easily, as a black and purple void in the midst of all the pure white fur.

The heartless seemed to notice what was going on and with a furious energy, it managed to hit Inu-Yasha straight on and sent him crashing into the ground. Then the beast turned around wildly in order to shake Sora off its back. Sora hung on with all that he could, winding a thick mass of fur around his hand to get a better grip as he was flung around. He was pretty glad that he still was out of reach from the dog's mouth, barely, but still. He closed his eyes in order to concentrate better as he tried to come up with a solution for this troublesome situation.

Suddenly he felt another presence closing in and without warning the heartless was stopped in its movements as one of the front legs was severely damaged. As soon as he could get back up on his feet again, Sora sprung towards the crest, calling forth the keyblade and making a high jump as he charged the weapon with what little power he had left in him. As he shoved the blade down on the crest, he felt something dark touch his conscience and stopped the draining of his magic in panic.

The crest cracked. Then, slowly, the crack spread until the entire crest shattered and turned into dust. Sora heard the heartless wail as it left the demon body and he quickly escaped the dog's back as it started to shrink.

When Sora landed, he saw Inu-Yasha stand there watching as the dog shrunk into the previous, human form. Sora limped forward, having hurt his ankle in the last landing, and was about to thank the half-demon for his help at that final moment, when he noticed that something was wrong with him. Inu-Yasha's golden eyes were for some reason red, just like the eyes had been on the demon dog and on his cheeks Sora could see purple stripes not unlike the ones in Sesshomaru's face, and his fangs had grown in size. He was breathing hard and there was a wild look in his red eyes that Sora hadn't expected to see there. It was like a completely different person.

"Inu-Yasha…?"

The half-demon turned his head towards him and grinned viciously, licking his lips free from blood stains. Then it was as if he somehow tried to hold something inside him back, his expression changing from wild grinning, into one of annoyance and pain.

"**Go away,**" he grunted with a guttural voice. "** I can't…control…**"

Sora understood and made a wide circle as he tried to move away from him and get back towards Kagome and the others. Sesshomaru was moving slowly back to his feet, having fallen forward in exhaustion at the end of the transformation. When he looked up and saw Inu-Yasha stand before him, he stared at him with cold eyes.

"I don't find it funny that you tried to rob me of yet another arm there," he said as he brushed some dust off his clothes. "Not funny at all."

Inu-Yasha grinned, but didn't say anything, while sweat broke out on his forehead as he held back the rage that he felt in his changed body.

"Kagome! Is there anything we can do to change him back to the way he was?" Sora asked as soon as he was within hearing distance. Kagome nodded and finished a knot she'd been tying on a string of black beads…

"So it _was_ a necklace!" Sora commented as he got to her side. "What's it for?"

Kagome didn't say anything, but rushed to her feet and ran towards Inu-Yasha and Sesshomaru. Without wasting any time, she managed to throw the necklace over Inu-Yasha's head just as he was about to attack his brother. As the beads fell into place around his neck, Kagome drew a deep breath and yelled.

"_**SIT!**_"

Inu-Yasha was instantly pulled to the ground by the magic of the necklace and before he had a chance of getting up, Kagome threw herself onto his back and held on to him.

Sora heard him mutter something with his mouth to the ground and as Kagome released him, he sat up and was back to normal again.

"_**DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN YOU STUPID GIRL!**_" he yelled moodily at her, but Kagome only smiled and looked at him through half-closed eyes, giving off a pretty evil expression and he kept his mouth shut around whatever it was that he had been about to say.

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><p>The following day, Sora slept most of the time, as his wounds healed under the care of Kaede and in one occasion Kagome. He didn't want to use up what little magic his body had managed to store in the short amount of time that he had rested, just to use a healing spell, so he took a chance to get some real sleep instead, while Luffy was kept busy by Shippo and Will spent some time with Kaede and Kagome as she tried to learn about their form of magic.<p>

The following night, Sora woke up long before the sunrise, not sure what it was that had awakened him until he spotted the silhouette of someone leaving the house. He got up from his place on the floor, ignored the ache in his muscles as he moved and got his clothes on. He left the shoes though, not wanting to make any more noise than necessary.

"Inu-Yasha?" he asked in a soft whisper as he followed the other outside.

Inu-Yasha flinched at the sound of his name, but he didn't move away as Sora sat down by him in the cool softness of the grass. It was hard to see anything outside, since the moon wasn't visible this night, but after a few minutes Sora's eyes got used to the dark.

He was surprised to find out that Inu-Yasha's white hair didn't shine against the shadows of the night. In fact, it wasn't even white.

"Err, your hair…" Sora began, but he couldn't quite grasp what to say so that it wouldn't sound stupid.

"I'm a half-demon, Sora. All half-demons have a time when their demon blood loses its power over their being." He then looked up at Sora, and he now noticed that Inu-Yasha's dog ears were gone and instead he had ordinary human ones, and his golden eyes had turned dark. Not even fangs or claws seemed to remain on him.

A bit shocked by the sight, Sora tried to find something to say.

"Sorry if I stumbled upon your secret there. I promise I'll never tell anyone, if you want me to…"

"That'll be best for you."

They sat next to each other in a strained silence for a while as they watched the stars of the night sky.

"Uhm," Sora started after a moment of silence. "Your sword, is it possible to fix?"

Inu-Yasha huffed, somehow seeming annoyed by the question.

"It's been fixed before. Miroku and Sango went off to see the old bugger who did it last time."

"Good to know," Sora said, eager to leave what seemed to be a touchy subject. Another moment of silence passed and he started to feel relaxed in the humanized demon's company.

"Thank you."

Sora turned to look at Inu-Yasha, not sure he'd heard it right.

"For what?"

"For healing me so I could fight. For taking care of that blasted monster. For kicking Sesshomaru's butt…"

Sora chuckled.

"Yeah, well, you did a pretty good job yourself."

Inu-Yasha turned his face down towards the ground, his expression hard to read in the darkness. Suddenly Sora remembered something he'd been meaning to ask.

"Hey, why don't you tell her?"

Inu-Yasha looked up at him, almost seeming a bit angry, his expression haughty and defensive for a moment, before he gave up the charade.

"Tell _who_ what?"

"Kagome. You have feelings for her, don't you?"

Sora could hear a grunt and waited patiently for the answer.

"It wouldn't work. It never works out well between demons and humans. Besides, she deserves better than someone like me. You saw what happened yesterday; I can't control myself when I'm like that. I've hurt her too many times already."

Sora sighed.

"Haven't you ever thought of the possibility of actually asking her what she thinks? Don't speak of yourself as if you're a monster!"

"But I _am_!" Inu-Yasha stared defiantly at him for a moment. "I _am_ a monster! The things I've done… You can't even understand half of how it feels to have this thing inside of me, not knowing when it will show up next or how many people I will hurt or kill when it happens! Even a full demon doesn't go off killing without knowing!"

"I know more about having an inner demon than you think," Sora commented in a low voice, setting the other completely off track in his rant.

"As if," was all he said, but then he was silent.

"At least you've got the one you care for right next to you. I don't even know where Kairi is or if I'll ever see her again. I spent a year risking my life to find her, only to be parted from her again for another two years while the heartless kept pulling me in different directions and when I finally get home and dare to believe it's over, the darn things get loose again…"

"Did they take her?"

The question came as a soft whisper, as if he was afraid to ask.

"No, I don't think so. But they took me… and they almost won."

They sat in silence for a period of time and Sora almost forgot what they were doing out there, when a thin sliver of golden light was seen at the far off horizon. Inu-Yasha's hair went from raven black to silver white as his ears traveled upwards on his head and changed shape. As gold seeped into the brown eyes, he turned towards Sora with a soft smile on his lips.

"I hope you find her again. You have a strong heart, Sora. Never give up."

"Likewise," Sora replied with a smile and got up to get back inside for a few minutes of sleep before the others would wake up.

"Wait, I've got this for you," Inu-Yasha said and threw a small object towards him. Sora caught it in his hands and as he looked at it in the dawning daylight, he realized it was a keychain. It was a string of black and white beads (the white ones shaped like small fangs), similar to the ones in Inu-Yasha's necklace, but much smaller. At the end of the string was what looked like a dog's fang.

"I honestly don't know why, but something told me that it could come in handy to you."

"You pulled a tooth out to make this?" Sora asked, a bit spooked by the idea of it all.

"No, that would've been stupid", Inu-Yasha replied with a look of disgust in his face. "Sesshomaru knocked it out when we fought, after the heartless had taken control of him. It fell into a pocket inside my shirt and I found it yesterday."

Sora thanked him for the gift and with a surge of energy he let the keychain disappear and connect with the keyblade inside of him, knowing that it would most certainly come into good use later on.


	28. Part 2: Chapter 12 A hollow heart

**Chapter 12:2: A hollow heart **

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><p>"<em>If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."<em> (Sucker Punch)

* * *

><p>Kairi had been taken to Ichigo's home, some blocks away from the city park. After waking up from her sleep of exhaustion, she got a full explanation of things, or as full as possible with a not too talkative Ichigo as narrator. After meeting the lion plushie that was Kon in-between Ichigo's transformations from human to soul reaper, a number of questions got their answers a lot faster, seeing as the little stuffed animal had a somewhat more open mind to conversation than did his human friend. Kon was explained to be a manufactured soul that was used to keep Ichigo's body safe while Ichigo's soul stepped out of it to turn into a soul reaper. A soul reaper, in turn, was a spirit of good using its soul's power, manifested in the shape of a sword (a <em>san paktou<em>), to fight off the bad spirits called hollows, who ate the souls of the living.

"Usually people can't see soul reapers, or hollows for that matter," Ichigo said and directed his intense eyes towards Kairi. "Why you and your friend here could see me I don't know, but it sure came in handy with that hollow. But I'm not a real reaper. I only got the power on loan from a real one."

"Yeah, and Rukia's way more good-looking than you!" Kon interrupted where he sat on Kairi's lap, his button eyes almost shining as he thought about said soul reaper. "Oh, her wonderful bosom, how I miss it…"

"So…who's this soul reaper that gave you these powers then?" Astrid cut in with a slightly disgusted look in her face, her blue eyes switching from watching the perverted stuffed animal that was Kon, to looking with a new interest at Ichigo. "I mean, if you're as strong and powerful as Hauru described it to me, then I'm guessing we could need the help of more professionals, no offence."

One of Ichigo's eyes made a nervous twitch and his lips were thinned out in a somewhat painful and closed grin.

"Well, that's just the thing. Rukia's been missing for almost as long a time as the heartless has been here. She went out to do something and then she never came back. I've been searching the whole town for her and I've more or less turned every imaginable rock over to find her…"

"Could she…" Astrid started, but Ichigo, sensing the question beforehand, interrupted her.

"No. If she'd been taken by the hollows or the heartless I'm pretty sure I'd know it. I'm using her powers, but they are still connected to her and if anything happened that would break that connection, I'm pretty sure I'd know about it."

Hauru nodded in agreement at this.

"I would say that's a reasonable explanation. But it gives us another problem; If she is still alive but not to be found, then it could be that the heartless has taken her for some other reason than just getting her heart."

Kairi thought about it for a moment, then, as she started to put the pieces of information together with what she knew about the heartless, she suddenly froze. She knew someone who'd been taken by the darkness without turning into a heartless. Without thinking about what she was doing, she stood up on her feet, her eyes wide with the realization and a hand going up to her mouth as if to hinder it from saying what she was about to say.

"Riku…"

Now all of the others in the room looked at her in question, Hauru and Astrid even more so than Kon and Ichigo, knowing a little about what Kairi had told them about her friends.

"What do you mean?" Astrid asked, wary of the look of fear and terror in her friend's eyes.

Kairi blinked as if waking from a dream, and shook her head to clear her thoughts from the old memory that had finally put the pieces together.

"My friend, Riku, he was taken by the darkness once. In many ways he was much like the heartless in his darkness, but he was still human, only at the end he couldn't control his own body since another heart had taken him over. One could say that he was controlled by the darkness that the heartless are made of," Kairi explained in rushed words, then turned to Astrid and Hauru alone. "Remember Akakabuto?"

Astrid grimaced as a shiver went through her body at the mentioning of the gargantuan bear that they'd fought not too long ago.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"He was also controlled in a similar way that Riku once was, only he had a way of getting set free from this control by breaking the heartless crest on him."

Astrid was about to ask what this had to do with Ichigo's missing friend, when she suddenly realized it and let out an understanding "Oh…"

Hauru nodded.

"I think you might be right on this one, but let's not get too hasty in our assumptions just yet. We still don't really know for a fact that this is what has happened."

Ichigo didn't say anything, but his dark eyes told of a number of mixed emotions towards this new information.

"So you're saying that the wonderful Rukia is being controlled like a puppet by these evil things?" Kon burst out dramatically with his button eyes vivid with emotion as they turned to Kairi.

"Oh, well, we don't know yet, but it's a possibility that we must be aware of," Kairi said, almost feeling sad for the plushie.

"And if she is, then what?" Ichigo suddenly said, his voice dark and unexpectedly powerful in the small room. "How do I save her?"

* * *

><p>"I still don't understand why we have to go out and look for something we can't see anyway," Astrid muttered and swung her sword at a nearby bush, cutting it almost in half with the sharp edge.<p>

Kon rolled his eyes (at least as close to performing this act as button eyes can come) at her comment from where he sat in Kairi's jacket hood.

"Well, you might not be able to see it, but we can," he said wittingly. "But I guess we can't all be awesome."

Astrid only gave him a cold stare and made a threatening motion of her sword that the stuffed animal understood all too well, and he shut his mouth.

"Well, at least there aren't all that much people in the area at the moment," Kairi said as she looked around.

"And that alone makes it even harder to actually spot a hollow," Ichigo said in a dark voice and picked up speed. "We need to get to their hunting grounds; meaning places where there are a lot of people on the move."

Just as he said this though, a shiver went through all of them and they stopped in their steps. Silent thunder rolled over the sky and this time Astrid felt the presence as well.

"Heartless!" she said and spun on her toes to get a quick look around in order to locate the enemy, but saw nothing.

"Not just heartless, Astrid," Hauru corrected her as he searched the area with his magic. "At least one hollow as well. But I can't locate them," he said, frustration clear in his voice. "I guess my magic still isn't working as good as it used to," he added with an apologetic expression in his eyes as he turned to Kairi.

Kairi was about to answer him, when another presence came to her attention and she spun around, looking in the same direction as Ichigo.

A dark portal suddenly swirled in the air in front of them and out stepped a young, slim built girl with black shoulder-length hair and dark, empty eyes. She was dressed in a school uniform, not all too different from the one Kairi used to wear to school, only grey and black replaced the blue.

The girl smiled with an expression that sent shivers down Kairi's spine. It was empty of emotions other than pure greed and vicious ruthlessness.

_Just like him…_ Kairi caught herself thinking and shook her head violently to clear it. She couldn't afford to lose herself in unwanted memories right now.

"Rukia!" Kon cheered as he saw her, then suddenly, he seemed to realize the same thing that Ichigo, Kairi, Hauru and even Astrid had realized only a second before him and he cowered in the safety of Kairi's hood.

"Nice to know you put up enough of a fight not to let them take you over completely," Ichigo said with a smirk and made Rukia look at him instead of Kon. Her empty eyes didn't reveal anything, no recognition what so ever at the sight of him.

"I'm glad you see it that way," she said, her voice strange and far. "Would you like to try my strength, soul reaper?"

Ichigo's expression darkened, and in the wink of an eye, Rukia's outfit changed from that of a schoolgirl's, to a black and white attire that matched the one that Ichigo had worn as soul reaper. She held out her hand and gripped in the air. In her hand, darkness started to swirl, forming smoke that stretched out and shaped a long and wide blade. As the smoke lifted, it revealed a jet black sword, shining in the daylight.

"Come on and fight me! Or are you too much of a coward?"

Ichigo clenched his teeth at the comment.

"You know I'm not a coward, Rukia. You of all people know that."

"Then fight me and prove it! I didn't give you my powers so that you could waltz around and do nothing while the hollows grow stronger. Fight me!"

Kairi flinched. For a short moment, it had looked as if Rukia's cold eyes had shown emotion while she spoke to Ichigo. And her hand was shivering, as if she fought some invisible power that wanted to move her while she kept still.

"Ichigo, I think you should accept her challenge," Hauru said in a low voice as he stepped up behind him. "She knows she's being controlled, and the only way to set her free is to find her weak spot, the crest of the heartless, and break it. If you don't, then she will most likely kill us all and the hollows and heartless will be free to do as they please if you're not here."

Ichigo muttered at him.

"As if I'm that important. There are other soul reapers, you know."

Kairi stepped closer to him as well, her eyes not leaving Rukia.

"There may be more soul reapers, Ichigo, but they're not connected to the heart of this world. You are. That's why they got to a person that you would have trouble fighting. They want you to not fight her. That's why you have to do it."

Ichigo blinked, then looked at Kairi.

"I'm what?"

"I'll explain it later, but that's the way it is. Without you to stop them, the heartless are free to take over this world, the living and the spirit one."

"I guess it leaves me with no choice, then," Ichigo replied with a frown and turned to Rukia. "Alright, then. I'll fight you. But don't you dare say I didn't warn ya'."

Rukia gave him a small smile.

"Likewise, soul reaper," she said.

"Kon," Ichigo said, and in almost no time at all, the stuffed animal jumped out of his hiding and towards Ichigo, in the same time as he popped a small pill into his mouth. The moment after, Kon had taken place in Ichigo's body and before them all Ichigo stood in his soul reaper appearance, his long sword drawn and held in front of him in a challenging position.

"I'm ready, so let's do this!" Ichigo said and without further warning, he moved towards Rukia in high speed, but she dodged his attack easily and made her own move against him.

Kairi called forth the Falling Star keyblade and moved to get into the fight, figuring she should look for the crest while Rukia was busy fighting Ichigo, but the former soul reaper made heartless puppet, moved out of her way and almost hit Kairi in a trick attack. Hauru had thrown a shielding spell her way just in time to save her from the black blade and Kairi sent him a thankful smile.

"Stay out of this!" Ichigo called out and made a move at Rukia. "I'll take care of her. You go take care of those heartless we sensed earlier!"

"I don't know what the heck happened with that Rukia girl," Astrid noted almost as if she had heard Ichigo's comment, and swung her sword at an oncoming Neo Shadow, "but I could use a hand over here with the visible enemies, thank you!"

Hauru sent a fire ball at the growing mass of heartless and rushed to Astrid's side and Kairi turned to Kon.

"Kon! Are you any good at fighting heartless or hollows?"

Kon grimaced, not unlike the way that Ichigo usually did it.

"I'm pretty good at running and kicking butt, but I don't know about those heartless things…"

"Do what you can or beat it!" Kairi ordered him with a stern look. "I'm going to do what I can to help taking out what is controlling Rukia. Astrid and Hauru could use any help at all with the heartless. If you can't do anything, then you better get Ichigo's body to safety."

A sudden roar echoed through the battle noise and Kairi's heart sank. That roar was all too familiar. A hollow. With a shiver of cold fear running through her body she gripped tighter at the handle of her kekyblade, threw another look over her shoulder towards the fight between Ichigo and Rukia. Figuring he could handle himself for a while, Kairi decided to help hauru take care of the hollow and ran towards the sound of the nearing beast.

"Hauru! Hollow!" she called out and pointed in the direction of the roar as she ran, swinging the Falling Star in a wide bow to take out some heartless that came up towards her.

Hauru nodded and was soon enough running beside her towards the monster that was now visible above the treetops in front of them. Kairi started reaching for her magical reserves in order to create the _rain of stars_- attack that had been so successful in their last fight, but even before they were close enough to attack the hollow, she realized that she didn't have enough magic in her yet to do it. If she tried, she would have a black-out and the attack wouldn't even be half-way preformed.

Cursing under her breath she tried desperately to find another solution, something to give her time enough to get any other powerful attack in order. Suddenly she came to think about the small and white stone she still had in one of her pockets. Sora had told her about how summons worked and she had a hunch that this stone she'd found was exactly that – a summon.

Not quite sure what she could expect from it, Kairi put her hand into the pocket and pulled out the stone in her fist, feeling the smooth, glassy surface go from cool to living warm against her skin. She concentrated on the stone and the warmth that came from it, stopped in her steps and raised the keyblade straight up above her head, sensing a pattern to move in being instructed from somewhere deep within her magical sense. The Falling Star started to glow brightly and as the hollow turned towards her, Kairi swung the keyblade in a spiral above her head, widening it gradually and lowering her arms as she got into a spin with the keyblade held out in front of her. The movement caused a spiral of white light to surround her, until she stopped and suddenly she knew the name she should call out.

"Give me strength… _Bolt_!"

The tip of the keyblade shone brightly and in a burst a white shape took form, jumping forward and landing in a soft fall of white dust, clearing the figure that now stood before her, ready to act. It was a knee-high white dog with pointed ears. On each side of the dog's body Kairi saw the lying down symbol of a black lightning bolt.

Hauru looked with wonder at Kairi and the white dog.

"Kairi, how, did you do that?"

She turned to Hauru and gave him a quick smile.

"Magic. I'll tell you more later. Now we have to move!" she said and as one, she and Bolt moved forward. With slight surprise, Kairi noticed that she moved faster than usual. A lot faster. And she soon figured that Bolt was the reason. The dog moved in high speed, somehow sharing his ability with her.

Suddenly the hollow motioned an attack towards them and Kairi acted on instinct, jumping to the side to avoid the giant fist that smacked down in the ground where she had been. Before the monster could retract its arm, Kairi followed Bolt up onto the outstretched limb, quickly climbing it on light feet, reaching the shoulder in no-time. The hollow slowly turned to look at them, but in the speed they were moving, Kairi felt as if the giant was moving in slow motion, being of no danger to them as long as they kept moving. She almost instantly spotted the heartless crest she'd been looking for, placed at the lower back of the creature, glowing with darkness against the white of the hollow's body.

"Bolt! I need your help to break that thing!" she called out to the dog in front of her, and he nodded, stopped in his movement and placed himself in a lowered position, paws wide spread and head leaning back a bit as he pulled in air to his lungs, widening his chest. As Kairi stopped right behind him, she got a sudden desire to cover her ears, but shook the instinct off and instead readied her keyblade, filling it with as much magic as she could spare. Bolt suddenly gave off a loud bark. It was a sound to be compared with thunder, pushing everything in front of him downwards and forward, creating a wall of compact air hitting the heartless crest. A loud cracking sound was heard and before the hollow had time to move and swipe them off its back, Kairi moved in on the crest, jumping high and turning in the air, the keyblade pointing down and as she landed, she released the energy saved up inside of the weapon. The Light Blast boomed out, almost matching the volume of the previous bark performed by Bolt, and as the crest cracked up, Kairi and the dog jumped down to the ground.

The hollow shrieked and the mask falling off its face turned into dust even before it touched the ground. The monster remaining stood swaying for a moment, before it too, suddenly burst into black smoke, leaving a heart-shaped pink object in its midst, slowly hovering upwards until it disappeared as well.

Hauru jogged up to Kairi as Bolt skipped around her in a circle before his appearance faded and went back to rest inside the small summoning stone that was now back in Kairi's pocket.

"And you needed me to do what?" Hauru asked with a crooked smile.

Kairi felt a bit uneasy at the question and started jogging back towards where they'd left Ichigo and the others, her legs a bit shaky after the performance. "I didn't know that the summon would be that powerful, or what it would do. I'm sorry if you felt a bit left out there."

Hauru put a reassuring hand on her shoulder for a short moment. "Don't worry. I managed to bind the hollow on the spot and I figure it helped a bit when you took it out."

Kairi gave him an appreciating nod and couldn't help feeling her cheeks blush as she looked up at his kind face. Sometimes his kindness reminded her so much of Sora. Although Hauru was a whole lot calmer than Sora in general.

"That was quick!" Astrid said as they came closer to her and Kon where they were still doing their best to keep the heartless at bay.

"Kairi just managed to take out the hollow heartless by herself," Hauru told her calmly and sent a magical attack towards an oncoming neo-shadow, sending it flying into the air and exploding into small specks of dark smoke.

Astrid blinked in surprise and gave Kairi an interested look as the red-haired girl passed her. "Really now? Good going girl!"

Kairi waved at her as she tried to find Ichigo, scanning the area with worried eyes for the trade mark orange hair. One moment later, said soul reaper crashed down before her feet, landing in a backwards roll. His large sword clanked against the ground as it landed a second later next to its owner. Running up to him, Kairi turned to look in the direction he had fallen from, and spotted Rukia landing some way off, a vicious grin on her lips and the dark eyes taking on a hint of yellow.

"Get out of my way and let me do this," Ichigo huffed from behind Kairi and when she turned he was back on his feet, his sword in his hand and his face set in a determined expression that in any other situation would have made her obey him, but right now, she knew he wouldn't be able to take much more of this on his own. She somehow felt that it was important that she helped, that they cooperated.

"I'm in this mess too, Ichigo, and no matter what you think of it, you _need_ me in this if you want to ever get Rukia back to herself again!" Kairi bit off and positioned herself beside him, her keyblade at the ready. "We need to cooperate, deal with it! You fight with your strength and knowledge of her, and I can try to get that darn controlling darkness out of her!"

Ichigo didn't say anything, he just grinned and nodded, his brown eyes glittering with liking.

"Teaming up won't help you weak mortals a bit," Rukia said in a deep and rasping voice very unlike the one she'd used only moments ago. The yellow in her eyes was spreading and Kairi could sense the growing darkness in her. The heartless controlling her was growing stronger from the fight!

"We need to finish this quickly, or she'll get too strong for any of us," Kairi noted to Ichigo, turning so that she stood back to back with him, holding out her keyblade in Rukia's direction.

Ichigo grunted. "You don't say? Every strike is stronger than the last one. How do you plan to do this?"

Kairi looked from the black shadow-made sword in Rukia's hand, to Ichigo's large blade and her own Falling Star, when an idea formed itself in her mind.

"Our weapons are representations of our souls or hearts, right?"

"Err, I guess so," Ichigo responded, not quite following her thoughts.

"If we unite the weapons, we unite the strength of them as well, and we can both use the power!"

"I'm not quite sure what you mean…"

Kairi didn't want to waste any time talking and explaining, instead she moved her keyblade to lock its key head against Ichigo's sword, thus preventing him to move it, then pushed out a spark of her magic light to wander from the keyblade to the sword. As she did this, Ichigo flinched, feeling the power-surge go straight into himself and releasing part of his own energy to travel across the blade and into the keyblade, which shifted in color and suddenly its distinct shape of silver needles melted together into a razor-thin, sharp key head with four horizontal blades and one vertical linked together. The top two horizontal blades went through the vertical one and bent upwards. Finally, blood red color seeped into the new keyhead and spread out to the blade where the star now was molded into a white based half mask with red stripes going in as claw marks from the key head. The top of the blade formed a sharp needle point edge simultaneously as the mask formed a visious looking black hollow of an eye where a yellow glow was lit. Sharp teeth formed at the lower part of the mask while the keyblade's body quickly shifted color from sparkling silver white into an ebony black. A small hourglass shape formed at the lower part of the blade, where the silver white from the Falling Star remained untouched. The star and handles of silver thinned out and turned black like the blade, stretched out and bent sharply to shape a new, single side handle. The leather around the hilt changed into off-white linen and from a black metal bow at the end of the hilt a new key chain dangled. It was a black fabric string connected to a small white half-mask with red stripes, similar to the one at the key head. Kairi felt the power pulsate through the dark blade and a shiver of… excitement went through her as her eyes met with Ichigo's.

"What the hell was that?" he asked under his breath, still feeling a bit shaken by the energy Kairi had sent into him.

"Cooperation of powers, as I said," Kairi replied and turned her eyes towards Rukia, who had followed their actions from a distance, calmly walking towards them with no hurry, looking more or less amused by it all. "Now, if you focus on her frontal actions, I'll do my best to get to her back and find that heartless crest. I think it might be there."

Ichigo nodded. "Then let's go!" he said and without further notion he rushed forward, lifting his blade higher in order to slash it at Rukia. Kairi went alongside of him and mimicked his moves with ease. As Rukia stepped aside to avoid Ichigo's attack, Kairi slipped in behind her and scanned her back, but without luck. No crest was visible during the short moment she got before Rukia turned and swung her shadow blade at her.

Kairi parried the attack with surprising ease. Her new keyblade was longer in the reach than the Falling Star and easier to control since the weight was close to nothing, and still it held great strength. A slight shifting in Rukia's expression told Kairi that this was most unexpected and unwanted and to Kairi this meant a good thing. She pushed forward, forcing Rukia to back up towards Ichigo, who aimed a new strike at her which she only escaped by a hair, braking Kairi's hold on her weapon in the last second.

"What is this trickery, key wielder? How did you do that? A soul-blade that isn't a soul-blade. Interesting indeed," Rukia said with that eerie voice she'd taken on. Yellow now covered her entire irises.

"Magic," Kairi replied with a witty smile on her lips as she returned to the back to back position with Ichigo. Suddenly he grabbed Kairi's outstretched hand, making her look him in the eyes.

"Sense my movements and follow my lead. I spotted that crest you mentioned. It's on her chest."

Kairi darted her eyes towards the now slightly more visible cleavage of their opponent and true to the word there was a small heartless crest right there in between the breasts. She would have to hit her straight on in the chest to break that crest and she would have to be very precise, or she would miss and might accidentally kill her. Swallowing hard she looked back to Ichigo and nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment and searched for his energy flow. It wasn't hard to find, since he never seemed to lock it up as he should. All of a sudden, she felt calm. She felt his calm as her own and his strength went into her as the force of nature that it was. She opened her eyes again and _knew_ the moves to do.

As Ichigo moved, so did she. They were completely synced, going forward in flowing motions as if in a dance. Her keyblade started to glow with a red light as a red mist of energy poured out of it and suddenly it enclosed the both of them in a protective force field as they moved. Rukia made a move to attack, but her blade was instantly repelled by the red glow and Ichigo swung his blade, splitting the black sword in half and sending the other half flying out of Rukia's hands and thus forcing her into a wide open pose, exposing her chest for a short moment of time.

That's when Kairi made her move, sensing the Blood Shield-attack wouldn't last much longer. She came in under Ichigo's arm, moving into a position where she was standing straight in front of Rukia. The keyblade was pointing towards its goal and Kairi needed only to take a quick step forward for the sharp point of the top to hit. It pierced the crest and Rukia froze as black smoke oozed out of the hole in her chest, her eyes wide in surprise.

The yellow color faded quickly from the deep blue-black eyes and soon enough the darkness was gone and Ichigo rushed forward, catching Rukia in his arms as she fell forward when Kairi removed the keyblade.

Rukia coughed once, then looked up at Ichigo with sad but relieved eyes, before she turned her head to look at Kairi as well.

"Thank you," she said in a weak voice, before she fell asleep, exhausted from the pressure put on her by the creature that had been controlling her.


	29. Part 2: Chapter 13 Law of balance

**Chapter 13:2: Law of balance **

* * *

><p>"<em>There are no angels without demons"<em> (Jarod, _The pretender_)

* * *

><p>"So, you came here through the old gate in the basement?"<p>

Hermione, Riku and Donatello nodded as response to the question asked by Edward. They were sitting in the kitchen of the house, each of them, with the exception of Alphonse, holding a large cup of tea between their hands, slowly sipping on the hot brew while going through the recent events.

"I found it lying half buried in the acres some years ago and figured I'd move it here and try to work out what it is. I've never made it do anything, so the fact that you did, is interesting."

"Did you know it was a gate?" Riku asked.

Edward shook his head. "No, I didn't know it, but I guessed it had to be something like it. Although, the thought about other worlds is a bit hard to take in…"

"So how about you?" Hermione cut in, not wanting to spend too much time brooding on the subject of other worlds. "You mentioned that you've encountered the heartless before."

Edward looked up, his golden eyes turning to her as he nodded.

"Yes. They started showing up about two weeks ago in Central City. We've lost a lot of people to them over the days, and Al and I went here as soon as we understood that those creatures showed in other places as well. This place is far from any military stations, so they're pretty much defenseless if anything or anyone would attack."

"And brother also needed to have Winry do some repairs on him," Alphonse filled in.

Edward gave his brother a stern look, but before he could say anything, Donatello cut in.

"Repairs? On what? Perhaps I can help with that?"

"Hardly, no offence, Donatello, but I rather have Winry be the only one to do this," Edward huffed and made a movement of his right hand as if to wave off the offered favor, then winced as a creaking sound was heard from his wrist.

Now all three outsiders looked at him with surprise and Alphonse placed a firm hand on his right shoulder and squeezed, causing his brother to yell out.

"Al! That HURTS!"

"You need the help, brother, let him have a look and Winry can fix it up later on. Maybe you should let him look at your knee too, you've been limping a bit since we got off the train," Alphonse said in a calm voice, seemingly unbothered by the steaming rage his brother did nothing to hide. "I believe you can trust them all."

Edward stared at his brother for a moment of silence, then sighed, all air seeming to leave him. He looked a lot more tired and worn out now that he was relaxing, than he'd done only a moment ago and Riku found himself feeling a bit sad for him. There was something in the weariness displayed in his golden eyes and the way he looked right now that reminded Riku of Sora and the way his friend had changed after their last adventure.

Within those eyes Riku could discern pain, regret, sorrow and fear similar to that which Sora's eyes had expressed the last time he'd seen him.

Meanwhile, Donatello reacted to the words Alphonse had said.

"His knee? I don't know, I'm not a doctor, but I'm a pretty good mechanic."

Edward gave him a weak smile. "Oh, but I don't need a _doctor_. I _need_ a mechanic," he said and took his red coat off with some hardship, his right arm seeming stiff and not quite good. When he started working on unbuttoning his black shirt, they all spotted the shine of metal on his collarbone, or rather, where his collarbone should have been. Once the shirt was off, they saw the reason for the metallic sound when his wrist had been bent. His entire right arm was in fact a mechanical prosthetic made of shining steel-like metal.

Donatello let out a low whistle, staring at the mechanical arm. "Now that's some piece of work…"

"Then you should see my leg," Edward said with a slightly humored voice.

* * *

><p>There was something mysterious about the silver-haired boy, Edward thought as he watched him talk with Alphonse, about three hours after they had met. There was something that made him instantly trust him, without really knowing him. Riku felt, well, in lack of better words, "safe". His friends were a bit odder than him, but they seemed ok as well. At least the turtle did. The witch was a chapter on her own and Edward didn't quite like her attitude, but he guessed he could stand it if need be. Donatello had helped him fix up his arm and leg only a couple of minutes earlier and now he moved them carefully, testing the flexibility. He was no Winry, but Donatello hadn't lied – he was quite the mechanic.<p>

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how come you've got these prosthetics? I mean, you're pretty young to have lost body parts like this."

Edward looked at Donatello in search for hidden agendas, but he realized rather quickly that the turtle was honestly curious.

"It's called an auto-mail, and I rather _not_ speak of it, actually," Edward replied with a sigh, pulling his pants up after the leg-repairs and Donatello nodded his understanding.

"No worries, I was just curious."

Edward was about to put his black shirt back on, when there was a knock on the door.

All of the gathered looked up in surprise and as Edward rushed the buttoning of his shirt he waved for the others to keep still and silent in the background. Heartless didn't knock on doors, but they didn't expect company and for some reason Edward and Alphonse seemed to be a bit on edge, as if they were hiding from someone, so Riku decided to do as told without a fuzz, making Hermione and Donatello follow his example with a meaningful look at them.

Edward walked up to the door and opened it slowly. Outside stood a tall, black-haired man dressed in a dark blue military uniform of sorts.

"I thought I might find you here, Full Metal."

With a low muttering, Edward stepped back from the door, showing the visitor inside with an exaggerated motion of his arm.

"I didn't catch that," the tall, black-haired man said with a crooked smile, his sharp eyes turning to Edward.

"I said," Edward replied with a voice filled with despise, "that the lieutenant colonel is way far from his post, being out here and all. What, may I ask, brought you here?"

The visitor raised a thin eyebrow and gazed into the room.

"You've never used that many nice words in a single sentence before, Full Metal. Who's here?"

With a heavy sigh, Edward told Alphonse to get the others from their hiding places.

"My, my," the visitor said, his eyes going from the three strangers to Edward. "Seems you're starting to get friends. Watch it, or you'll turn soft." Edward let out a growling muttering, but the black-haired man only smiled welcomingly to the others.

"Hello, I'm a friend of the Elric brothers. The name's Roy Mustang."

Riku looked at Edward and Alphonse, and as they didn't object, he reached out his hand to Roy, who took it in a friendly, but firm shake.

"I'm Riku, and these are my friends, Donatello," he gestured towards the turtle, "and Hermione," he turned to the witch. "We're only here as a stop on the road to somewhere else and the brothers were kind enough to let us rest here."

Roy observed Riku with piercing eyes, then took another quick look at Donatello.

"Your friend here, Donatello, was it?" The turtle nodded silently, observing the colonel with wary eyes. "You've got an interesting appearance. How come?"

"Chemically forced mutation," Donatello replied cooly. "Got a problem with that?"

Roy shook his head, still smiling. "No, just curious. Never seen anyone like you and most people similar to you have been the results of banned alchemy procedures in attempts to create chimeras. Seeing as you're not a chimera, there's no need for me to question you further."

Edward picked this moment to interrupt and stepped forward, a grim expression on his face.

"Now, colonel, would you mind telling me why you're here, if you're not here to arrest me and drag me back to Central?"

Riku, Donatello and Hermione looked at one another in surprise. _Arrest_?

Roy Mustang took his time answering, staring down at the golden haired youngling before him.

"Who said I wouldn't do that?" he said after a while and Edward froze, Alphonse coming up next to him almost instantly.

"B-but you can't! Winry and her grandmother are missing and we need to find them for brother's repairs and… and…"

"The shadows are here too, colonel. I'm investigating their origin and took the opportunity to look by here while I was at it. Now it seems my mechanic isn't home and I assure you I will be getting back to Central in due time," Edward said, interrupting his brother's stuttering tries to excuse their present location. "Is that all right with you, sir?"

Roy looked at him with his eyes half closed, not buying his explanation for one bit. Then, he shrugged and sat down on a chair he pulled out from the table.

"All right. I can't see the harm in investigating the outer rims as well," he said, smiling like a fox as he let his eyes set on Riku.

Edward stared at the colonel in disbelief.

"Ok, what's happened and stop looking so darn smug you bastard!"

"Brother…"

"Shut up, Al! I've got the right to know why he's bothered to follow me here if he doesn't mean to punish me for leaving my post!" Edward went on stepping up to where Roy Mustang was sitting leisurely leaning back on the chair's back support. "Spill it you sly son of a b-"

"Shush, Full Metal. Watch the temper," the colonel snapped in a cool voice. "I simply followed to make sure you arrived here without trouble. The shadows are spreading and I suspected you would want to make sure that this place was secured. Nothing seems to have any effect on them. They won't be flattened, blown up, drowned, choked, crushed or burned. They just keep coming back and the numbers are growing. And, to add to this, I received a message from base just before I got here, telling me there had been a strange outburst of energy in this village only a few hours ago. Know anything about it?"

Edward stood silent for a moment, trying to figure out just what he should focus on out of what the colonel had just told him. The fact that he implied a worry for Edward's safety traveling here, or the question concerning the mysterious energy.

"Excuse me, but I think that might have been our doing," Donatello suddenly said, stepping forward.

Mustang turned to look at him with growing interest. "Hoh? How come?"

But before Donatello could do his explanation, Riku stepped in, not wanting the revelation of other worlds and travels between them to be too wide spread. Instead, he called for the Way to Dawn, bringing forth the original form of his keyblade in order to make the weapon seem more strange and fierce than the Cat's Eye.

The colonel blinked, surprised and somewhat interested.

"I'm a keyblade wielder. Just what it means I won't go into explaining right now, but as I produce the blade, I use an inner energy which burst out and often makes measuring equipment go a little wild. Is that a satisfying answer, sir?"

Roy Mustang looked from the blade to its wielder with great disbelief, then caught the strength in the stare of Riku's turquoise eyes and nodded.

"For now, I guess," he said. "You know of how to fight the shadows?"

Riku smiled in understanding.

"As a matter of fact, that's what I do best."

Edward seemed to be on the verge of a verbal outburst, when the door to the house opened without a warning. All of them turned towards the opening, the colonel getting on his feet in one smooth movement that to Riku looked like a well practiced ability to instantly get ready for battle.

But in the doorway stood no heartless. Instead, there was a tall, fit young woman with slightly muscular arms, her long blond hair gathered in a high pony tail at the back of her head. She was wearing a shoulder-less tank top and carpenter's jean trousers with a pocket at her chest where an oily rag was sticking out. Her large dark blue eyes took in the gathered and stopped on Edward, who seemed more than surprised to see her.

"Winry…" he mumbled, and the girl seemed close to tears.

"Ed!" she called out and ran the few steps parting them, throwing herself at him, arms around his neck as they fell to the floor with the shocked boy at the bottom. Surprised and somewhat disturbed by her actions, Edward tried, with blushing cheeks, to pry her off of him so that they could talk properly.

"Winry, what…?" Alphonse said, coming up to them and lifting her up from his brother to let him up on his feet.

"They came into the house… I tried to… they took grandma!" she yelled out with tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "Ed, I was so scared! What are they?"

Edward's expression had grown dark as she spoke and he turned his hands in to fists, clenching and un-clenching them repeatedly.

"The shadow creatures came here?"

Winry nodded.

"And they got the old lady?"

Another nod from Winry.

"What about you?" Riku asked and they all turned to look at him askance.

"What do you mean?" Winry asked, sniveling and drying her eyes with the back of her hands.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Edward repeated her question, the tone of protectiveness not slipping Riku by un-noticed.

"How did you escape?" He set his eyes on hers, noticing something strange in the midst of the blue which set him on edge.

"I… they let me go…" she answered with a growing worry in her voice.

"They what?" Hermione asked, getting her wand out from inside of her robes as she noticed Riku's tensing grip on the keyblade.

"The heartless let me go…" Winry repeated, her eyes revealing her fear as she realized something was wrong, then they turned blank from all emotion, the blue washed with yellow as she threw herself back at Edward who still stood close to her.

"She's possessed!" Riku called out in a warning, but it was too late. With an unexpected strength, she moved around with Edward in her grasp and took a hold on his mechanical right arm as she did so, and pulled it loose with one powerful jerk and tossing it to the floor.

Edward screamed from the pain coursing through him as the nervous system connected to the arm went berserk from the sudden release.

"If you want him in one piece you better not come closer," Winry said with a hollow voice, her blank eyes darting from Riku to Roy Mustang and Alphonse, who were the three standing the closest to them.

"Winry, what the hell?!" Edward pressed out through clenched teeth.

"The heartless have taken her over," Riku explained in a stressed manner. "There's a heartless controlling her from within, using her body to get an advantage over us."

"Heartless?" the colonel asked, a bit confused by the term.

"The shadow creatures," Hermione explained to him. "They are called heartless, because they are what is left when a human's soul, or heart, is taken by the darkness."

"You know this, how?"

"Riku," Hermione said. "He fights them using the keyblade. He knows them."

This short explanation seemed to suffice at the moment, because the colonel didn't ask anything more and returned his attention to Winry and her hostage. Using his one remaining hand, Edward was grabbing at the arm slung around his throat, fighting for air as he tried to squirm out of the mechanic's grip. She turned her blank, yellow shimmering eyes to him, looking down into his eyes as he looked up at her.

"Winry, why …are you…doing… this?" he asked in huffed out words and she smiled, a sad expression entering her features.

"I want to fix you, Ed. I want you with me, see? Wouldn't it be nice? No repairs needing to be done, no travels needed to find the answer?"

Riku felt his heart drop at those words. They were frighteningly close to the words Maleficent had fed him with as she turned him over to her darkness. Tempting, tricky words touching his inner self and reacting to his higher wishes.

"Edward! Don't listen to her!" he called out, seeing with horrifying clarity that the golden haired boy was starting to relax in her grip, thinking over the suggestion as she slowly reached down to his chest with her free hand.

"Don't mind him. It's so simple really, Ed. No more pain, no more fear. All that is needed is just a small operation, one thing goes and all other things come back as they were."

"No!" Riku called out and moved forward in the instant that Winry's hand turned night black and pierced Edward's chest in a lightning fast movement, causing his body to jerk oddly in her grasp. He screamed from the sudden pain, trying with all his might to break free, but he was stuck in her firm grip.

With a smooth movement, Riku aimed his keyblade towards Winry's black arm. Knowing the other keyblade had stronger magical powers than the present one, he changed the keychain in mid-strike, and the Cat's Eye flashed into existence, the silvery metal shining from within as he released his magic into it within the blink of an eye.

_This better work!_ he thought as he let the weapon sweep down. "HEAL!" he called out the spell, seeing the green light explode from the blade the very instant that it hit the transformed arm. He had used the healing spell mainly to keep Edward safe from the attack simultaneously as he dealt the heartless inside Winry a tough blow of magic that would strengthen Winry's own defences and theoretically make it harder for the heartless to control her.

Winry gave out a shrill scream and let go of her prey in a reflex movement, the black arm retreating to her body as its original form and color came back. Alphonse was surprisingly swift on his feet, reaching his brother and scooping his writhing and twitching body up from the floor and into his own big arms.

"I'll carry him to a safer spot, you try and save Winry!" Alphonse said as Riku turned his eyes to him. Riku nodded and together with Donatello, Hermione and Roy he went after the now fleeing girl.

As soon as they got out of the house, heartless were upon them in large numbers. They took up a large area around the house and prevented them from reaching Winry, who kept running away from them.

"Fuck!" Riku swore out loud, cursing his short hesitation before he'd gone after her.

"Oh, let me clear the road, key wielder," Roy Mustang said, stepping in front of him and raising his hands out before him.

"No offence, but you won't stand a…"

"Watch and learn," Roy interrupted Riku in his objection, then snapped his white-gloved fingers. The air before them suddenly erupted in flames. It was an inferno set loose on the hordes of shadows opposing them and all of the heartless were caught in the fire, writhing in the sudden and unexpected attack, turning into ashes within seconds and thus, clearing a path.

As soon as the fire stopped, Roy gave Riku a shove in the back.

"After her! I'll keep these ones busy!"

Riku motioned for Hermione and Donatello to follow him and rushed through the ashes, renewed heartless slowly rising out of the blackened ground as they passed.

She'd achieved a strong lead on them, but both Donatello and Riku were fast runners and Hermione used a well needed spell to attain more speed and keep up with the others. Within a few minutes they were able to almost reach her as she ran up a small hill towards the burned ruins of what looked to have been a house once upon a time.

"There's no use running, Winry!" Riku called out to her as she stopped by the black remains of what once might have been a front entrance. "The darkness is inside you and the only way to get it away is to face the light!"

A wicked smile was on her lips as Winry turned around to face them.

"Who said she wants to get it away?" a hollow voice said through her mouth. "She likes the power. She wants to use it to attain her dreams, to complete the broken ones."

"Darkness can't heal or build lasting things!" Riku objected as he walked up to her, Donatello moving to the side in a wide circle movement to get behind Winry. Hermione, while catching her breath, moved the other way to create a clear line between her wand and the taken girl.

Winry smirked, the empty eyes now almost golden, similar to Edwards'.

"Who are _you_ to tell her, key wielder? You know _nothing_ of what powers the darkness possess! Your puny weapon is nothing against the true force of darkness which I can give the girl! And if you want to kill me, go ahead! I'll take her with me, and we'll see who's the hero then!" the heartless being hissed with a cackling laughter in the background of its words. It was a strange thing, to see Winry move her lips and act, and still know that she wasn't the one acting. To know that the enemy in front of him couldn't be killed without harming the girl still trapped in its grasp, unless the creature controlling her was lured out of her body somehow.

Riku bit down hard on his lower lip as he forced himself to think through the taunting words that had been spoken and find a solution to this stand-still. He had one chance, but he had hoped not to be forced into it. But the more he thought about it, it turned out to be the only chance he had of both defeating the creature _and_ saving the girl. But it might cost him the trust of his friends.

With a grunt he lowered the keyblade to let its tip touch the ground and looked Winry straight in the eyes. He had to try.

"You say I don't know about darkness?"

"A hero of the blade never looks upon the darkness with knowledge, don't you try to tell me anything else," the creature cackled and Winry's lips smiled wider as her eyes turned a more solid yellow.

Riku let out a short laugh.

"Heh. How wrong you are," he said, choosing his words with care. He needed to scare the thing, but he didn't want it to flee. "Whoever said I was a hero?"

The creature hesitated, uncertainty apparent in Winry's eyes as she looked at him. The cackling laughter had stopped and the wolfish grin was gone.

"What are you playing at, key wielder?" it asked. "You fear the darkness, don't you?"

Riku smiled grimly and let go of the keyblade, the weapon disappearing the moment it fell to the ground.

"Do I fear it?" he asked rhetorically and took a step towards the girl. "No. I can't be afraid of myself, can I?"

That's when he released the power he'd been building up since he started this mocking conversation. An aura of blackest black suddenly flowed out from his body, a cloud of purple-edged black smoke erupting from it. He could see his friends flinch as they saw it, but he ignored the sting it caused him in his chest. All that mattered now was to keep control of his powers.

Winry stared at him in horror and fascination.

"This is impossible!" the creature hissed, backing away from Riku with hesitating steps.

"You want to try your power against mine, heartless?" Riku boomed out and he looked down at the cowering girl with hard eyes. "Do you really think _you _could stand a chance against _me_? I, who have controlled the likes of you long before you ever became aware of what you are? Don't make me laugh." His voice, boosted by the powers he'd released, echoed through the silent surroundings, sending invisible shivers down his own spine as he heard it, but he kept his eyes cold, staring at the creature inside of the frightened girl's eyes.

"_Master_," the creature suddenly hissed with its hollow voice as it recognized the power behind Riku's threat. "What would you have me do?"

"Leave the girl."

One simple command and the creature obeyed. A shining heartless crest lit up on Winry's chest for a brief moment as the creature left her, then, she fell to the ground, not ready to suddenly be in control of her own limbs again, as the heartless creature that had controlled her suddenly left.

Black smoke hovered for a moment in front of Riku, then transformed into the shape of a female looking body wrapped in dark stripes, large and horrifying claws for hands on long, sinewy arms and a monstrous head with beast-like features and small, yellow glowing almond eyes directed towards him.

"Do you want release?" Riku asked, knowing he risked a lot as he did so.

"Can it ever be given?" asked the creature in return, its voice now deeper.

"If one choose so."

"I don't have the shards, the Crystal is still incomplete."

Riku almost lost his grip on the darkness at those words, for they revealed something to him that shook him in his very soul. He now knew without a doubt why the creature had obeyed him and it was only his years of practice in keeping control of himself that saved him.

"If you want release, I will give it," he said, choosing not to answer to the information given.

"Yes."

The creature closed its eyes and Riku produced the Cat's Eye once more and with the utmost effort, he managed to cage the darkness back inside of him again and let the light flow through him within an instant, pointing the keyblade at the heartless and feeling the healing powers of the light course through the weapon to form a beam of white that pierced the black creature with a soft tinkling sound. It opened its eyes to look upon him as the light enclosed it, and Riku felt a warm sense of gratitude flow towards him from the creature before it disappeared.

As soon as the light died out, Riku fell to his knees, exhausted by the strain the act had put on his body. It wasn't a thing one could do unpunished, to first engulf himself in darkness that he had kept locked away for so long, and then almost instantly overrun this darkness-infested body with light.

The keyblade vanished and he fell to stand on all fours, facing the black earth as a light rain started to fall, quickly drenching him and the others. He felt their eyes upon him before he heard them move closer and he feared the confrontation he would have to take after revealing himself as he had done. But he didn't want to look up just yet. He wanted to prolong the fragile moment of relief for as long as possible.

Suddenly he felt something he hadn't expected and froze, his eyes wide, as Winry let her arms enclose him from behind, pressing him close to her and forcing him to sit up straight with her behind him, hugging him to her.

"Thank you!" she whispered with tears in her voice. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…"

It took a moment for his mind to register her words through the shock.

"For what?" he asked, his voice raw and croaking after the use of darkness upon it.

"For saving Ed, and for saving me…for risking so much only to save me…"

And he could hear the knowledge of his pain in her voice, a knowledge that caused her to cry as she held onto him.

Riku only noticed he was crying himself when Donatello came towards him with a new understanding in his eyes. There were questions in his silence, but he waited to pronounce them until some other time, when the moment was more right. Now, he simply bent down and offered him his hand.

"You need to get out of the rain before you catch a cold," he said in a soft voice and Riku nodded, taking the offered hand and getting to his feet as Winry let go of him.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Donatello asked, gesturing to his eyes, and Riku nodded slowly, not caring to wipe away the tears.

"Like nothing else," he said.

Hermione took his free hand in her and started walking back towards the Rockbell house, Winry and Donatello following suit. As they got closer though, Winry couldn't keep her emotions in any longer and she rushed in front of them, and into the lit up house, calling with great worry to Edward, who greeted her with a tired smile, sitting next to his brother and a rather battered but alive colonel in the large couch in the living room.

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><p>It took some time to tell the Elric brothers and the colonel about what had happened, but Winry, Donatello and Hermione did their best while Riku rested. He noticed that all three left out the detail of as to how he had managed to free Winry of the creature and he was grateful for it. Not everyone would easily accept his actions as all good when told afterwards like this. Besides, it would be hard enough to explain his darkness to Donatello and Hermione, he sure didn't want to have to explain it to the others as well. And as the others talked, Riku slipped into a deep sleep filled with shadows and memories of a dark time he wished undone.<p> 


	30. Part 2: Chapter 14 Bad Dreams

_**Author notes:** Sorry about the delay guys. I've been ill and haven't been able to use the computer due to horrible headaches and dizzyness. But, here are the updates - finally. ^^ /Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>Chapter 14:2: Bad dreams<strong>

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><p>"<em>Don't turn away, don't give in to the pain. Don't try to hide, though they're screaming your name. Don't close your eyes: God knows what lies behind them." <em>(_Whisper_, Evanescence)

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><p>Sora turned the violet oval glass-like stone over in his hand and observed the way the sunlight played on its surface. The red elastic thong holding it mismatched something fierce, but it made him even more certain: this was a summoning stone. It was the second one he'd come across this far and he felt it was strong. It was nothing like the fierce might and heat he felt as he held the Midnight Fire summon. Instead, this power was less explosive and much more durable, the kind needed in longer battles, a protection rather than an attacking device. He felt a soft heat slowly grow from the stone and smiled.<p>

"_Gentle Protector_," he whispered out, knowing it was a correct name for the summoning stone.

"Huh? Did you say something Sora?" Luffy asked and turned his head to him askance.

Sora put the stone away in his pocket beside the other summon and shook his head. "Nothing. I just tried to figure out the summon, that's all."

Luffy lifted an eyebrow as he thought over the information.

"Summon? That stone-thing you found?"

Sora nodded and Luffy's face suddenly lit up with recognition, as if remembering something important.

"Hey, didn't you have one of those already? You know, the thing that spooky woman gave to you in the market?"

"Yeah. I just haven't used it yet," Sora replied, not wanting to prod deeper into the subject at the moment.

"What's a summon?" Will asked and walked up beside Sora, who still found it a bit difficult to keep in mind that the short and skinny younger girl was the same person as the taller, older and more powerful guardian.

"Well, it's a sort of charm," Sora tried to explain, scratching his head. He picked the two summons he'd gotten this far out of his pocket and showed them to Will. "They basically work as an aid in battle. I use the keyblade to bring their inner powers to life, re-awakening the person who the heart inside of them once belonged to, if but for a little while."

Will looked from the stones to Sora with a curious expression in her brown eyes.

"How come you haven't used them?"

Sora grimaced and put the stones back into his pocket.

"Well, the time hasn't been right for the first one yet, and the second one I found only recently, right by the _Bone Eater's Well_ as we closed the keyhole to Kagome's and Inu-Yasha's world," he explained and started walking again, feeling restless. "Besides, the summoning takes a certain amount of magical power and in the larger battles we've had, my magic has been rather quickly spent on healing and other attacks. I have to build up a reserve in order to use the magic. Do you understand what I mean?"

Will looked as if she finally understood a riddle she'd been trying to solve for a while and smiled. "I think so. I draw my magic from the Heart of Kandrakar, which is more or less a power source without end so long as I treat the power with due respect. But you don't have a source for you magic other than your own heart, and since you're a living being, it probably means your heart doesn't have the strength to keep giving you magical power in an endless output without shutting your body off after a while."

Sora nodded, surprised by how close Will's explanation came to the one he'd recieved himself from Donald when the duck first explained the workings of his magic to him all those years ago. He turned his eyes back to the contour of the _Benbow Inn_ which had grown a lot closer in the last few minutes. "It will be nice to see Jim again," he said in order to change the subject and be able to think about something else for a while.

"Yeah, and to eat his mom's food!" Luffy agreed with one of his impossibly wide smiles stretching on his lips, making Sora and Will smile as well. Ever since they decided to go back to Montessor, all that the pirate had been able to think about was the food. He was constantly hungry and the fact that he could eat just about anything and still find it delicious, both of his traveling companions found it rather interesting that he had in fact noticed that there was a difference between the food of the innkeeper and that which they had been living off during their trip.

When he opened the heavy wooden door to the inn, Sora felt a sadness enter his heart, knowing that this was a warm and friendly place and that Kairi would have loved it. Thinking about her and Riku caused him a strange kind of pain. He'd been feeling strange ever since the battle against Sesshomaru, as if his darkness had come too close to the surface and now just wouldn't go back to rest, but this was stranger still. He felt… _hollow._ Empty in a way that reminded him all too much of what it was like to not have a heart. Eager to chase away the sadness and the aching in his chest, Sora put on a smile as he entered the inn.

Jim more or less flung himself at the three of them when he spotted them amongst the other customers in the big dining hall. He saw to that they got a good table, food and drinks and then he forced them to tell him about what they'd been doing since they parted. He also offered them some information about the situation in his world. There hadn't been any more heartless sightings since Sora and the others had taken out that first one in the docks of the space port, but more people had been pouring in from other worlds. Most of them seemed to come to the space port to begin with, but a few had showed up at Montessor as well and the numbers of world fugitives were starting to get alarmingly fast-growing. It had brought some good things though, such as a strengthened defense against hostile pirates at the docks and magical or chemical enhancement articles in the market.

"I really wish I could have gone with you guys though," Jim said after having heard Luffy's version of the experience of being a bear.

Sora forced a smile on his lips at those words, but his inner sadness shone through in his eyes.

"Your world is still intact, Jim, that's why I didn't want to put you through this. You should treasure the fact that your home still exists and be glad that you haven't yet been forced into this battle. It's nothing you should ever wish for."

Jim looked down at the table and plucked with a splinter in the wood. "I've been in battles before you know," he said slowly. "I'm not that weak and defenseless."

Sora's expression darkened and he huffed. "There's quite a difference between a battle and a war, Jim. I don't think you're defenseless, or weak for that matter. In fact, I think you're a strong guy who would have been a good help to me. But As long as your world is safe and still in place, I will not pull you away from it. This place needs you, more than you think."

All three of Sora's friends looked at him askance as he said this and he muttered a short curse under his breath for having said too much. "All I'm saying is that you shouldn't desire participation in a war that you don't have to be a part of. A war means being forced to constantly enter a situation where every single move you make can mean the death of someone, be it you, your enemy or even your allies and friends. When that happens, you have to face all your fears, flaws, faults and strengths and know that everything depends on you making the right move at the right moment. It's not a thing you wish for, trust me."

The others had gone silent as he was talking, their eyes big with surprise and a sudden compassion which he didn't want to see right now. Not now when his heart and mind were shrouded by a thin veil of shadows and his chest was hurting. Knowing he had to get away for a moment, Sora slowly stood from his chair.

"I'm sorry, I'm just not… feeling all that well right now. I think I'll just go to bed and sleep this bad mood off. Thanks for the food, Jim."

"Sora…" Will started, but Sora didn't stay to listen, feeling the tears building in his eyes and not wanting the others to see them. He left the table without saying anything more, taking the stairs up to his and Luffy's room two steps at a time, not resting until he closed the door behind him. Slowly he walked up to the bed closest to the window and sat down upon it, looking out at the night sky and the illuminated silhouette of the Montessor Space Port hanging like a crescent moon in the sky. He didn't know what had caused him to act like he did, but he felt a growing sadness inside his chest that he couldn't control. It felt as if he was reliving every sad and tragic moment in his life all at once, his chest aching as his eyes finally pooled over and he silently wept while he tried to make any sense out of what he was feeling. After a few minutes, the tears dried and he felt a bit better. He felt empty, but at least he wasn't heartbreakingly sad anymore. Tired to his bones, he laid himself down on the side in the bed, curling up into a ball, still looking out the window as he let his thoughts drift. The stars looked familiar, looking up at them like this…

_Looking up at the night sky was soothing. When doing so, he always felt at home, despite the fact that he didn't really remember what home felt like or where it was for that matter. Maybe it was up there among the other stars that he was now seeing? _

_An older man was talking to him, laughing and smiling. He was a good man, Sora could tell. He reminded him of Riku in a way, only older and darker in his colors. He held a keyblade, sparring with Sora who smilingly enjoyed the mock battle, wielding a strange keyblade himself. It felt… good. Safe. There was a woman there as well. A woman with kind eyes and a soft smile. She too had a keyblade. They were part of a bigger whole and he felt at home in their company. It was strange really, the way he seemed to know them, and still he couldn't remember who they were. Their names, voices and faces either blurred or hidden to him as distant memories forgotten through time's interference._

Sora turned in his sleep, a sense of unease entering his body as the dream peacefulness of the scene suddenly changed and he knew something bad had happened.

_He could see his two friends slip away from him, slip into darkness as he tried to reach them and pull them free. _

"_Wait! Don't leave me!" he called out with a strangely muffled voice, but they couldn't hear him. Moving forward in the darkness that now surrounded him, Sora suddenly felt the ground give in under him and he fell, landing hard on a smooth and cold surface that seemed to glow from within and created light in the darkness. As he looked up from his kneeling position, he saw someone come walking out of the shadows. _

"_Riku?"_

_His question was awakened through a confusing memory that made this dark figure remind him of his best friend. But it wasn't Riku who stared down at him with yellow eyes as the figure stopped in front of him._

"_You are so lost, kid," the dark stranger said with a smug expression in his yellow eyes. "Do you even know where you are?"_

"_I'm here," Sora replied with the simplicity of a child. Then he looked around himself and discovered that the surface he was in fact standing on was a wide disc of stained glass, showing a large picture of himself, seemingly asleep. Around his image were smaller portraits of Riku, Kairi and the two strangers he had dreamt about before, and one image looking very much like Roxas… _

_Sora looked back up at the dark stranger standing before him and found himself being scared by his all too familiar features. Something about his entire being screamed out danger, but still Sora couldn't move from his position, sitting on his knees and looking up into the yellow eyes._

_The dark one made a purring sound, smiling at him in amusement. "You know this place, don't you?" _

_Sora nodded. He had seen it before in a dream._

"_Your heart is an unbreakable prison and yet you can't even protect yourself while you're sleeping? What kind of insane fate put the keyblade in your hands anyway? You wouldn't even stand a chance against them, and most definetly not against me, or _him_."_

_Sora felt his growing fear mix with confusion. "What do you mean; my heart's a prison? And why the keyblade is with me? It chose me! I'm a keyblade master!"_

"_Master? You?" The stranger made a sound as if he thought the very idea being preposterous. "Don't make me laugh, kid. You're just an unlucky bastard who happened to be picked when they needed a hero. But tell me, did anyone ever train you? Teach you what to do and how? You don't even know the half of what you can do with the blade, and you call yourself a master?"_

_At this, the dark stranger suddenly called forth a horrifying keyblade and directed it at him. "I could easily take your heart right now," he said with a venomous voice. "But what's the fun in that?" He grinned wide at Sora, then faded slowly before his eyes. "You better build up your defenses kid, or you'll end up a puppet you too," he said as his yellow eyes disappeared into the shadows, and other yellow eyes started showing in his place. _

"_No… Don't leave me alone…" Sora mumbled, fear growing in him as he saw the heartless take shape, darkness flooding the stained glass he was standing on._

Sora woke up screaming, his eyes staring blindly at Luffy as the pirate tried to shake him into awareness. With a desperate need to get free of whatever it was that was crushing his heart, Sora clawed at the comforter that had spun around his body while he slept. He tumbled out of bed and away from Luffy's hands. Opening his zipper shirt and clutching his bare chest, Sora backed up to the wall with fear in his wide eyes, sliding down to sit curled up on the floor with the wall at his back.

"Hey, Sora, calm down, buddy! You're raving mad! It was a dream! Wake up!" Luffy yelled at him, one hand shooting out and slapping Sora in the face.

Blinking, Sora stopped screaming. Finally, after taking a few deep breaths, he recognized his surroundings and Luffy's worried face.

"You ok now?" the pirate asked, his voice shivering a little.

Sora bit his lip, his hands still pressing over the burning scar on his chest, and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Sort of…"

Suddenly the door to their room flung open and both Will and Jim rushed inside, the latter holding the Heart of Kandrakar hovering in the palm of her hand, glowing like a pink lantern in the gloom of the room.

"Sora! Luffy! What's the matter?" Will asked, worry clear in her voice.

Jim walked up to Sora and hunched down to sit on his heels and be somewhat at the same level as him as he put his hand on Sora's bare and still shivering shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

Sora felt bad for having worried them this much and tried to shake the fear from his dream away, but without success.

"I… Just a n-nightmare. I'll be… I'll be fine in a moment," he mumbled, not quite believing his own words and noticing that his friends didn't either.

"Are you hurt?" Luffy asked as he finally noticed the way Sora was still pressing his hands against his chest.

Sora closed his eyes as he tried to calm his still racing heart by breathing slowly.

"Let me see," Will suddenly said and before Sora could stop her, she had bent down and preyed away his hands to see what was hurting him. He heard her gasp with surprise at the sight of his scar, and noticed Luffy's slightly interested whistle as well.

"Where… how… what kind of a scar is that?" Will asked in horror as Sora finally opened his eyes again, the pain slowly letting go.

"That's one neat scar to carry around, dude," Luffy commented with his own twisted view on things.

Sora sighed tiredly and put a hand to his forehead, rubbing slowly while he tried to find the words. "It's my heart," he said after a moment of pressing silence. "I told you, I've been fighting the heartless for a long time. And one time, I was forced to make the choice of either saving my friend and all the worlds, or to stay alive myself. I chose to save her. But to do it, I had to use a keyblade to take my own heart away, and willingly turn myself into a heartless." He paused, looking up at his friends, and to his surprise, they all seemed to understand his choice. Feeling a bit lighter at heart for this, he continued. "After Kairi managed to bring me back, I've had this scar to remind me of it. Whenever I have a really bad nightmare, my heart hurts and the scar sort of burns. But only when the dreams are about the heartless or my memories of things I've seen in the battle against them. It's not really a big deal, I'm rather used to it actually. But I'm sorry if I scared you."

Will wrinkled her forehead in thought, her eyebrows rising in dislike at the idea of just casting the nightmares and the pain away as being nothing but bad memories and relived horrors. She knew all too well the power of dreams to take them too lightly. "I don't know, Sora, I think you should try to find out what these dreams really are about. They could carry a warning for the future. And if not, you really need to get them off your mind, because getting used to that kind of thing is never good to anyone," she said with a serious voice, looking him straight in the eye.

They talked for a while longer, Sora trying to describe the dream as far as he could remember it, while the others listened in deep thought, but none of them could make any sense out of it and decided to leave it all be until the morning. As he got back to bed, Sora knew he wouldn't be able to sleep any more that night, but he pretended to have already fallen asleep when Luffy wished him good night. Turning his eyes to rest upon the distant space port in the sky, he started to count the stars surrounding it, in lack of better things to do.


	31. Prt2:ch15 A friend a battle and a witch

**Chapter 15:2: A friend, a battle and a witch**

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><p>"<em>Think of what can be if you rewrite the role you play"<em> (Adam Lambert, _Aftermath_)

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><p>After having found the keyhole to Ichigo's world not so surprisingly placed in the centre of the large city park where their battles had been fought, Kairi and the others had decided to return back to Montessor Space Port in order to re-fill their bags with what they needed for another trip. Once back in the hotel room, Kairi threw herself on the soft bed and mumbled gratefully into the soft material of the comforter a promise that she was definitely going to sleep at least this night in said bed, just to get some well deserved rest. Astrid was quick to agree, still not used to the travels between worlds and being quite tired from having fought hard against the heartless in their last struggle to get to the keyhole.<p>

Rukia and Ichigo had helped with the hollow-heartless beasts, but it had still been a tough battle for all of them. Hauru had used up almost all of his magical mixtures and was decidedly worn out by it all as well. They all agreed that they could use the rest coming from staying in one, safe place for at least one day and night.

While lying on the bed and savoring its softness, Kairi wrinkled her nose as she tried to put together a clear image of what they were up against. The creature they had met at Gin's world had spoken to her as if it knew her, despite the fact that she'd never seen it before. And it had known about Riku and Sora. Another thing that was stuck in her mind like an endless riddle was the thing the creature had asked for. It had demanded that she would give it a shard of something. What, it hadn't said, but it still made Kairi wonder and it bugged her that she couldn't figure it out, despite the feeling that this shard-clue was very important.

The following morning Astrid took Kairi out to visit the market. She was going to look for a sharpening stone for her sword and some ingredients for one of Hauru's potions, while the magician himself took a trip to his shop to tend to some other errands. Kairi hadn't seen much of the Space Port before and she was happy to do something else other than brooding over her troubles with the travels and the heartless problem.

"First off I'm gonna' get that sharpener," Astrid declared as she wove her way through the milling masses of varying species of creatures that filled the streets. "I know this really good weapons smith whom I should be able to get a good price from."

Kairi kept Astrid close as they went, fearing she might get completely lost if she lost sight of the viking for just one moment, she hooked her fingers onto Astrid's skull-decorated belt and thus felt free to let her eyes wander as they went. The first human she spotted was a man looking to be about the mid-thirties, wearing a very worn bathrobe over a rather filthy pajamas and holding a soggy towel tightly in one of his hands while he spoke with a shop stand owner. She was about to ask Astrid about his strange appearance, when the Viking suddenly changed direction and Kairi lost her grip on the belt. She stumbled forward a few steps, then looked up only to find that she had, in fact, lost Astrid to the crowd.

"Oh, bother," she muttered and tried to stretch up on her toes to get a little better view of the place, but this effort didn't help her much, since she wasn't taller than the average human teenage girl, and Astrid was even a bit shorter than her. Instead she quickly decided to get to the side of the street and place herself by one of the house walls, keeping her eyes open for a head of light blond hair, figuring that Astrid should rather soon discover that Kairi was missing and come look for her. She found her way to a high but slim building made of pale yellow bricks, with dark blue spruced window frames. She looked up to the sign hanging above the door and couldn't help but smile at the name of the place. The sign showed a black silhouetted rat with a chef's hat, holding a spoon and the place was called _The Ratatouille Inn_, probably with emphasis on the "rat", if the sign was to give anything away. Judging from what she saw through the bottom floor window, the place was a well-visited restaurant as well as an inn.

Kairi sighed and returned her eyes to the milling crowd, knowing she better keep her attention up if she wasn't going to miss the viking when she came by. While she waited, she spotted yet another human, but this one looked just as lost as she did, and he was probably younger than she was, judging by his size alone. He had bright red short hair standing up from his head in soft spikes and as he turned around, Kairi noticed a very odd trait: his eyes had the same red color as his hair. He looked straight at her and when she smiled at him, he smiled back, walking slowly up to her.

His clothes were loose fitting, generally black and purple in color, making him look even smaller and shorter than he was, but somehow it fit with his general appearance. As if he was deliberately hiding himself or something about himself by pretending he was harmless. As he came closer though, Kairi felt a strange presence telling her that this boy was anything but defenseless. A good person maybe, but definetly _not_ defenseless.

"Hi! You look a little lost," Kairi said and reached out her hand to him.

He smiled back, a light flush appearing on his cheeks as he took her hand and shook it.

"Yeah, a little, I guess. And you?"

Kairi nodded.

"Yep. Completely. I was here with a friend of mine, but, she sort of disappeared while I looked away."

"Well, at least you have someone to look for," the boy said and let go of her hand. "I honestly have no clue as to where I am."

Kairi blinked. So this kid was from another world then?

"Where are you from?" she asked.

The boy held out on his answer, seemingly having a discussion within himself whether or not to trust her. "Errr, I'm not from around here, that much I can say," he said after a while and Kairi nodded.

"I understand. Me neither. You lost your world?"

The boy looked startled, his red eyes growing wide with surprise, before he seemed to relax. "I think so. You too, I assume."

"Yes. I'm Kairi, by the way."

"Daisuke Niwa," the boy said and gave a short bow. "I've been here about three days and I would appreciate it if you could help me find a place where I can live, because sleeping outdoors here has proven not to be a very good thing."

Kairi gave him a compassionate smile and nodded. "I bet you can get a room at the inn here," she said, pointing with her thumb towards the door of the _Ratatouille Inn_, "or you could come with me and my friend Astrid once she finds me again. We live at a bath house a couple of blocks away from here. I'm guessing it's a bit more expensive than this one though."

Daisuke seemed to think through his options, grimacing at the mentioning of the price.

"I don't really have any money, so I probably should try for a job or something first off. You think they need a dish-boy?"

Kairi chuckled a little at his expression, and he soon smiled back at her, realizing that he must have looked rather funny; grimacing like the job was the worst possible thing to ever be presented to him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you will be able to get a job at any place here if you're honest enough about working."

Daisuke smiled wide, his eyes glittering at the thought of being able to sleep in a real bed. He was about to say something more, when Astrid's voice suddenly cut through the background noise.

"Kairi! There you are!"

Kairi turned to look at her friend and smiled as she saw the mix of worry and anger in the viking's face as she came closer.

"Astrid, I've been waiting for you right here all along. I lost sight of you and figured you'd understand that I might be back here," Kairi replied and turned around to introduce Daisuke, but the red-haired boy was suddenly gone. She thought she saw a glimpse of his clothes disappearing through the door to the inn and shrugged, hoping to meet him again later on. At least she knew where to start looking for him. When Astrid got to her, the viking made it clear that she had no intention to take her eyes off of Kairi this time around and took a firm grip on her arm and got her to go right next to her as they once more went into the crowd.

A few minutes later Astrid had managed to purchase the needed ingredients and, after a moment of heavy drooling and some doubtfulness concerning their munny-stash, she also got herself a rather large and heavy double axe. Kairi smiled wide at her friend's obvious infatuation with the weapon, glad that she had convinced her to actually buy it. She knew from Astrid's constant complaining that the sword by her hip wasn't her favorite choice of weapon and seeing as how they all needed to be at their best in each fight against the heartless and the fact that they had well enough munny, Kairi figured that buying the axe would benefit them all. And Astrid was more than grateful for her support in the purchase.

They were just about to turn back towards the bath house, when a sudden scream cut through the air, followed by panicked outcries and a starting motion of the crowd going in the direction opposite of the ruckus. Kairi had only to look Astrid in the eyes to know that they had thought of the same thing: heartless. Astrid put a smile on her lips and gripped the new axe in a battle ready hold and gave Kairi a nod, wordlessly telling her to lead the way. Within a second Kairi had called forth the Soul Reaper keyblade and they were soon rushing towards the screams.

When they arrived to the scene, Kairi's heart sank as she confirmed that it really were heartless that caused the trouble. While they had been running, she had eagerly hoped for another cause, perhaps a fire or something like it. But there was no doubt about the assailant.

The heartless in the center of it all was large and muscular, looking more or less like a smaller version of the Hollow Heartless they'd encountered in Ichigo's world, only wearing pants and having no mask. Around this giant, a small amount of ordinary and Neo Shadows milled about, hunting down people to steal hearts from, and she also spotted some heartless looking more like pirates with pants, boots and swords, some even wearing a characteristic cloth tied over their heads.

"Errr, they're quite a bunch, don't you think?" Astrid commented as she tried to take the whole scene in. "What should we do?"

Kairi squared her jaw and raised the keyblade higher, her eyes cold and hard as she made her decision. "We fight. We'll just have to do our very best and keep going until they're gone."

Astrid gave a quick confirming nod, then, as Kairi rushed forward, she followed her with a warrior's battle cry ringing from her mouth as she raised the axe to swing it at the first shadow coming in her way. Some of the fleeing people stopped at the sound to look with confused expressions at the two young women rushing into battle with the dark monsters.

Red streaks of light followed the motions of the Soul Reaper as Kairi went through the smaller heartless to get to the big one. She didn't think much about what she did, she just kept her mind set on getting to the biggest of them and take it down as fast as possible. With only a second's warning, she managed to dodge the ball of purple tainted fire sent at her from her target. She rolled quickly back up on her feet, managing to dodge the attack of a Neo Shadow as she went. With a wide swing of her keyblade she took out three shadows closing in on her and then continued to move towards the large one.

"Kairi, we need Hauru!" Astrid called out in-between two powerful swings of her new weapon. "They're just too many!"

Kairi didn't want to admit it, but it seemed as if the numbers of the smaller heartless was going to be the thing deciding the battle's outcome and she gritted her teeth as she once again had to dodge a fireball. There were just too many things to keep track of for her to ever reach the main target and still be able to fight it. Unfair and annoying as it was though, she refused to give up and just leave the scene. It was her duty as key wielder to fight the heartless and protect the innocents against the shadows' assaults. Besides, she wouldn't be able to ever look Riku or Sora in the eyes again knowing she had given up instead of going on. So she bit her lip and forced more magic into her keyblade.

"_Soul Defender_!" she called out, the attack clear to her in the very moment she let it loose. Red crescents of light flashed out in every direction her blade was directed at, cutting down more than half of the heartless in the area and leaving her a clear path to the giant. She could only vaguely hear the optimistic shout from Astrid somewhere behind her as she went ahead, recharging the Soul Reaper for another attack.

She managed to come about five steps away from the monster, when a shadow suddenly came over her and she turned her eyes upwards realizing with frightening clarity that she hadn't kept track of the thing's arms. But just as she readied herself to be crushed by the descending fist, she felt someone take a hold of her from behind and forcefully lift her off the ground and away from the oncoming threat. In fact, as her heart came back from having been frozen in shock, Kairi noticed that she was a rather long way off the ground and kept rising. The person who'd saved her was still holding on to her with strong arms and was obviously able to fly. As black feathered wings came into view in the corner of her eyes, Kairi turned to look at her helper, thankful and confused at the same time.

"You never told me you were a fighter," the man said with a liking grin spreading in his rather handsome face. He looked to be about Riku's age or perhaps a bit older, with dark, sharp eyes and deep purple hued black hair falling in long stripes around and over his face with a thick set of bangs hiding part of his face. He was dressed in an all-black leather attire that reminded her of that on Daisuke Niwa and a sudden connection was made in her head.

"D-Daisuke?"

The man smiled wider, almost sounding like he was laughing when he spoke. "Well, I'll be damned! You're rather smart too!" he said, then shook his head. "But, no, not really. My name's Dark Mousy. But I sort of borrow Daisuke's body every now and then. It's a… genetic thing."

Kairi decided she would pretend to understand this short explanation for now, and ask more at a later, calmer occasion. "Right… I'm guessing you know me, so let's get past the introduction part and get back into the fight!" she said and turned her eyes back towards the large heartless who was now some distance below them. "Do you think you could keep me in the air like this, but get a bit closer to that thing's neck?" she asked after having spotted the one thing that made this whole situation seem a bit brighter.

Dark didn't answer, but lowered them as requested and Kairi charged up the Soul Reaper once more, the black metal of the weapon giving off a blood red glow as it was filled with power.

"When I tell you to let go, then let me fall, ok?" she said, not caring to look over her shoulder to confirm the request with the winged man holding her. She felt her magical reserves grow thinner as the attack ate up energy. Deciding that it was enough charging, she aimed the keyblade towards the spot where she could now see the weakness of the large heartless as clearly as if there had been a crest marking the spot. "NOW!" she called out and without a moment of hesitation, Dark released her from his grip and she fell. She turned in the air, creating a spiral movement as she went head first towards the target, her keyblade stretched out before her.

"_Sanpaktou_!" she called out, the name of the soul reaper weapon springing to her lips as the attack was released. A powerful beam of red shot forth from the tip of the keyblade with a slim streak of crackling white spiraling around it as it shot down with an impressive speed. Like lightning it hit the target spot-on with a thunderous blast of white light pooling out like a large bowl around the impact centre. Kairi felt her shoulders be pressed back from the force of the impact and with a painful yank she was stopped from falling, her body swinging down from the suddenly stopped downwards motion and it was all she could do to just hold on to the keyblade as its beam pierced the heartless' neck right through and down into the ground below. The giant didn't even have the time to look up at its attacker before it was disintegrated, the massive body suddenly nothing but a black mist disappearing into thin air.

Kairi was more than grateful of feeling Dark's hands take a hold of her right before the powerful beam of read was interrupted, the black winged angel thus preventing her from crashing to the ground. Instead, she was now slowly lowered to where Astrid was still keeping the remaining heartless at bay. Despite feeling rather drained, Kairi gathered what strength she had left in her and with Astrid's help she got rid of the last ones within a few minutes.

When the last heartless vanished, Kairi got rid of the keyblade and instantly leaned on Astrid as the viking came up beside her, thankful for the support of the blonde's shoulder. Astrid in turn leaned on her axe and gave Kairi a rather proud and exhilarated look, smiling from ear to ear with the adrenaline rush of battle still pumping energy into her body as she panted and tried to slow her breathing.

"Wow, seriously, you two girls are one fearsome team," Dark said with a short whistle as he strolled up to them, his black wings suddenly disappearing from his back. Before their eyes, the tall and slender man shrunk, his hair changing color from purple to red and his features growing younger, all within the period of two or three seconds. Daisuke Niwa's eyes were wide with surprise and awe as he looked at them. When he noticed their stares, he blushed and stopped in his steps, suddenly having trouble deciding what to do with his hands.

"S-sorry about, well, bashing in l-like that, b-but Dark is kind of impulsive a-and you seemed to need some help," he mumbled and turned down his face to hide the rapid reddening of his cheeks.

"I'm very glad you did," Kairi said with a smile, making Daisuke look up at her. "But how come you were here? I thought you went into the inn back there."

"I, err… followed you…" he admitted.

"Why?" Astrid asked, too baffled by the whole transformation thing to have said anything before this.

Daisuke looked at her, then back to Kairi, and sighed. "Well… I sort of wanted to know where to find you later. I, I don't know anybody else here, and I really don't like being alone, even though I have Dark with me all the time," he said slowly, weighing his words before he pronounced them. "He can be rather annoying in the long run, you know…"

Suddenly it was as if the fleeing crowds around the sight realized that the threat was gone and that the trio in the centre of the previously chaos-inflicted area was to thank for this, because they were interrupted in their conversation by a loud cheer and within a short moment all of them were lifted high into the air to ride on the hands of the thankful crowd. Praises and cheers were showering them all the way to a small square set next to a large white building that Astrid quickly explained to be the hospital and main information center of the Montessor Space Port.

Each person in the crowd wanted to speak with them, thank them and give them small signs of their gratitude in the shape of jewelry, food and munny. They tried to tell them it wasn't necessary, but as none seemed to listen, they soon gave it up and just kept smiling and accepting the gifts until the last of them left the scene and the group managed to get away for a moment and hide in the shadow of one of the stands which at the moment seemed to be abandoned.

Kairi put the last gift of munny into one of her belt pockets and exhaled slowly as she turned to look at the stand where they were hiding. From the long thin pole holding up the canvas ceiling, a number of necklaces hung in leather thongs of varying color. Each necklace had its very own design and most of them held a jewel in the end. The jewels varied in shape, size and color and as a beam of sunlight hit them, they sent out a myriad of colored light to create spots on the canvas walls and ceiling. There were a number of other odd things represented in the stand, but Kairi couldn't help but feel more drawn towards the necklaces, one of them standing out in particular, almost as if it was calling for her attention. It was a solid polished rock of a dark grayish green color and it would have seemed rather dull in compairance to the other stones and jewels, if it hadn't been for the shape of it. It had the shape of a heart, with small but very detailed scales worked into the surface.

She reached out a hand and let her fingers grace the stone, feeling the smoothness of the scaly surface and a slight pull in her chest telling her that there was something special about this necklace, something important. Kairi as well as Astrid and Daisuke jumped as a woman of uncertain age and heritage suddenly seemed to appear as out of nowhere, looking at them from behind the necklaces.

"See anything you like?" she asked with a soft smile. "I do believe the stone sees something in you," she added, turning to Kairi, who surprised realized that she was now holding the scaly stone in her hand.

"I- I…" she stuttered, not knowing what to say or how to explain her unconscious theft, embarrassed and confused at the same time.

The woman laughed heartedly and took her hand, closing her fingers around the stone. "Don't look so startled, girl! Geez, you look like you've seen a ghost! And I can assure you that I'm no such thing, because last time I checked, I was alive," the woman said with the laughter still in her voice as Kairi looked at her in confusion. "But one never knows about those things though," she added, looking serious all of a sudden. "Who is to say that one always notices when one dies, right?"

Astrid gave the woman an odd look, not quite following her reasoning and Daisuke seemed no wiser in the matter when Kairi turned to look at her friends for support in this most odd encounter.

"Right…" Kairi managed to say as she hesitatingly pulled her hand holding the stone to her chest. "Are you telling me I should buy the stone?" she then asked and reached for her munny pocket with the free hand.

But the woman shook her head vigorously at this.

"No, no, no. I'm not telling you anything. The stone has picked you and therefore I have no right to keep it in my care. You know best what to do with it when the time comes. I have no use for it, because it won't use me."

"But it's a STONE," Astrid objected, getting a bit irritated by the strange woman's babbling. "It's a dead thing! Stop talking about it as a… a person or something!"

The woman suddenly turned her mesmerizing eyes towards the viking, and Astrid gulped as she met her stare, seeing suddenly something more than the plain woman of untold age that was standing in front of her.

"Angela never talks about living things as dead or dead things as living," the woman said, her voice heavy with seriousness. "That stone is not all that it seems to be, young viking. It has a heart of much strength and a wisdom beyond your imagination. To mock it and call it dead, is not advisable. Have I made myself clear?"

Astrid nodded, eager to get the eyes to turn away from her. She felt naked when the woman looked at her. Small, naked and defenseless. And Astrid had never liked to feel defenseless.

"Then I thank you for letting it choose me," Kairi cut in, feeling it was best to get the matter over with before Astrid said something she would regret.

Angela turned to Kairi once more, her smile back on her lips.

"Well, what else can a woman do, but to serve the powers at work to help the defender of the worlds in danger?"

Kairi froze.

"I, I'm not…"

"Relax, key wielder. I am your friend and I know a lot of things that others don't. For example I know that the young boy next to you is harboring a much older spirit inside of him." At this, Daisuke flushed red and looked as if he wanted to hide. "I guess that's part of the reason that I am here when others are not," Angela continued, ignoring Daisuke's reaction. "Because I can help and I was able to help myself when needed."

Kairi suddenly understood and reassuring warmth spread in her chest. "You've lost your world too, huh?"

Angela gave a small bow of her head. "It is only lost to my eye, but as long as I keep it in my heart, it still has a memory to be rebuilt upon. And I pray for you to use what help you are given along the road in order to keep my memory alive."

"B-but I'm not a hero," Kairi objected, suddenly overwhelmed with a strange feeling of insecurity. "You shouldn't leave all your hopes to me."

Angela looked at her with those timeless eyes in a manner that made Kairi think the woman was annoyed with her.

"Not a hero? Someone once said that 'a hero is someone who's too scared to use their sense and run and then somehow survives'. You look like someone too _brave_ to run, but the saying still works on you. Don't tell me what to think or do, girl, I know more about those things than you. And don't worry about your friends, you'll find them in the end."

Kairi blinked and felt her heart skip a beat.

"You know something? Are they ok?" she asked, her hope mixing with panic.

Angela gave her a sad smile and shook her head. "I can only tell bits and pieces of things. And if I say the wrong bits or too much of it, I may change the things I've seen into something I can't foresee."

With her sudden energy running out of her as quickly as it appeared, Kairi let her eyes wander down to her hands. Suddenly the herbal woman put the scaly stone in one of her hands, making Kairi look up in slight surprise.

"Don't say you're not the right person, because the stone picked you for a reason. Dare to change the way you see yourself and you might find out you're so much more than you think you are," Angela said cryptically and gave her a soft smile.

With a feeling of having been completely and thoroughly examined inside out, Kairi and the other two left the herbal woman's stand a short moment later, confused and relieved. Kairi held the heart-shaped scaly stone in her hand, feeling a subtle beat from it, as if it really had a heart beating inside of it. A soft blanket of warmth spread in her hand as they walked towards the bath house and she suddenly knew what it was that Angela had given her. It was a summon. Putting the summon stone in the same pocket as that of Bolt's stone, the name _Shared heart_ came to her mind and she found it somehow fitting.


	32. Part 2: chapter 16 Repairs

**Chapter 16:2: Repairs **

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><p>"The best way to stand what you've become, is to remember what you've been." (Theodor Kallifatides, <em>Ett nytt land utanför mitt fönster<em>,/ A new land outside my window/ 2005:15)

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><p>The brothers Elric had been more than grateful for the help given to save Winry Rockbell and as soon as the colonel had made his leave with the promise to file a most interesting report on the doings of his young subordinate (a comment leaving Edward Elric fuming with various threats which were gracefully ignored by Roy as he left), Riku did his best to explain to their friends what a world heart was and why it was important for them to find it. Edward was forced to stay at the house with Winry, as the mechanic worked on repairing the torn connections to the auto mail arm she'd torn off him during her semi-heartless state. His younger brother was more than glad to assist them in their search though and after walking around the closest area for some time in search for anything that might trigger Riku's senses, they ended up at the old house ruin where Winry had led them the night before. Alphonse told Riku and the others that this was actually his and his brother's childhood home. He didn't want to go closer into the details around what had made it turn out like this, but he didn't need to. Riku's heart had reacted to something in the centre of the burned remains and his keyblade had flashed to life, revealing the keyhole to the world. Some way or the other, it seemed like this place contained enough of the essence of this world to make it the portal for its heart.<p>

As Riku, Hermione and Donatello were about to go through the Stargate in the Rockbell basement (with a dire promise from Ed and Al to destroy the device once it was turned off), the oldest brother had given Riku a small circular piece of metal dangling in a silver chain with a black clasp at the other end. The metal piece proved to be a used and torn off old pocket watch cover, decorated with what Ed described as the insignia of the state alchemists.

Now, back in the small three bed room of the _Ratatouille Inn_, Riku turned the keychain over in his hand, feeling the odd magic in it work through his neural system and mix with the inner magic in his heart that was connected to the keyblade. He came to think about what Roy Mustang had called the short and hot tempered blond, and smiled slightly as he found the name rather fitting for this new keyblade, despite not knowing what it would look like. _Full Metal._ It sounded tough, battle fitted and fierce. Just what he needed.

"That's another keychain, right?" Hermione noted, the question more like a statement than something expecting an answer. Riku only nodded in response and put the keychain away in one of his pockets.

Donatello looked up from his notebook for a moment, taking the pencil he'd been chewing on out of his mouth before he spoke.

"Hey, that reminds me," he said and put the pencil back between his lips as he reached back with his hand to take something out from some hiding in his back shell. When he got it out and showed it to the others, Riku almost instantly knew what it was, even though he hadn't actually seen one before.

"I found this in the basement just before we left, Winry said it was ok for me to take it along, so I did. I figured you could use it for something. Don't really know why, though," Donatello said, the confusion clear in his face as Riku reached out and took the small copper red metal cylinder into his own hand. It was a slim and very well made bullet with a needle sharp edge to it, made as if to pierce just about anything coming in its way. The odd part about it was that it was welded to a thin but tough dark grey steel wire that in its other end held a small triangular piece of stone with an intricate pattern.

"It's a summon," Riku said in a low voice as soon as the magic of the object made contact with his own magic, creating a mild warmth in his hand. The name _Sharp Shooter_ came to his mind and he could feel the power of the heart inside of it pulsate into him.

"A what?" Donatello asked, interested, while Hermione observed the small object in Riku's hand with sceptisicm.

"An object made to serve as a door for a spirit or creature of some kind to travel from whatever place it is, to the place of the one summoning it. Am I right?" the witch said and looked at Riku for confirmation.

"Yes," Riku said and put it into another of his pockets. "More or less." Riku sighed before explaining the details of the summon and how it worked in fights, the same way Sora once had explained it to him. It hurt to think about Sora, because the very thought of his friend brought all his doubts and fears to the surface. What had happened to him? And would Riku be able to save him or even find him, the way Sora had found both him and Kairi all those years ago? This in turn made him think about Kairi and the worry for his other friend doubled his pains.

Donatello seemed to notice the state of his friend and asked no more questions concerning the summon, not quite sure what had caused Riku to feel bad, but none the less not wanting to cause him more pain.

They had returned to _Montessor Space Port_ after the visit to the world of the brothers Elric, using Hermione's more than _Very useful_ _book_ to get the coordinates needed. Donatello had suggested they rested for a while, offering him a chance to give some maintenance to the Stargate of their base world in order to keep it working as needed. Meanwhile, they could also need to refill their supplies before the next world visit.

The morning following their return, the group decided to split up and search the market for the things they needed. They split some of their munny between them and headed out; Donatello to get some material in a hardware store to use at the Stargate, Hermione to search for food and ingredients to potions she knew of how to make that could come in handy and Riku to find anything useful in the healing and curing area, seeing as how they had been forced to entirely rely on healing spells in their past battles, a risky act when one could get low on the magic needed.

Riku muttered a line of chosen curses when the first place he came across had proved to be closed. The small shop had displayed what looked very much like a bottled High Potion in the window and he had very much liked to find out if the familiar fluid actually was the curing brew he desired. After asking a passing short red-haired guy in a pink samurai outfit for directions to the closest pharmacy, he started walking up the street leading to the large hospital building where the smiling man had directed him. Riku was almost certain that the man with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek wasn't from this world, but he seemed to find his way around here none the less. This made him wonder just how many worlds that had already been taken before he'd even got here himself.

In the midst of his cursing, Riku realized that people around him were talking excitedly about a battle of some sort. Curious as to what it was about, he stopped by a map sign and tried to overhear a conversation between two strange-looking characters that he figured were natives of this world, standing only a few steps away from him while he pretended to read the map. When he heard them mention a large, black shadow beast, he forgot all about pretending not to listen and decided to walk up to the strangers.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help hearing you talk about some shadow monster being fought. Where did this happen?" he asked, getting their attention almost instantly. One of them, a large guy looking more or less like a pile of stone come to life, turned to him with his stony version of eyebrows raised above the small but sharp eyes.

"You mean you didn't notice? It was just around the corner, at the large square. About half an hour ago. Big ruckus. Lots of screaming and crying. Everybody panicked, naturally."

"So what happened?" Riku asked, gesturing to the obviously non-panicked crowd surrounding them.

The other person, a creature looking rather much like a humanoid toad with an extra pair of eyes turned to him.

"Well, there were these incredible girls there to fight it, you see," he said, his four eyes lighting up with awe at the mentioning. "Two humans if my eyes didn't trick me. Had some odd fashion of clothes and weapons did they, but one of them was definetly knowing what she did."

"Indeed," the stone man cut in. "Clubbed the beast down rather quickly, after getting some help from a winged male of some kind. It simply disappeared in a blast of light. It was sure an astonishing act to see. No one has managed to take those monsters down before."

The toad man grimaced at this. "Oh, when the first one got here it was beaten as well. My cousin saw it. It was a red haired girl in that battle as well so I'm pretty sure it was the same one that time."

The stone man nodded in agreement to this, but Riku hardly noticed it. He felt as if his heart had stopped as he'd heard the mentioning of a red haired human girl fighting the obvious heartless with a "strange" weapon. _Kairi!_

He quickly regained some control of his tongue. "Excuse me, but do you happen to know where those girls are right now?"

The men happily pointed out to him that the heroines and their assumed friend had been brought to the area in front of the hospital for a proper praise of their selfless act and Riku almost forgot to thank them for the information before he set off in a dead run towards the hospital. His heart was racing and his mind went wild with the possible promise of finally being reunited with one of his friends. But when he got there, the area was more or less deserted, the crowd gone to other places and no sign of Kairi and her mysterious helpers anywhere to be found.

Riku cursed under his breath for the second time that day, his heart sinking in his chest as his frustration grew. He was so close! But finding her in this crowd, in this place, was going to be like finding that infamous needle in the hay.

"Now that's a line of words I don't hear every day," a woman's voice said from somewhere behind him.

Embarassed, Riku turned to look who it was that had heard him and met with a pair of glittering eyes of a strange coloring. They somehow seemed to shift in color depending on the light. Her face told nothing about her age, but those eyes could have belonged to a creature more ancient than anything he had ever encountered. She held magic, of that he was sure. A strange kind of magic that he couldn't recognize, but magic none the less. She was standing behind the table of a rickety sales stand with a strange mix of articles filling it. Necklaces with various jewelry and lockets and what-nots dangled from the canvas ceiling, and the surface of the table was covered by stones, oddly colored feathers, large scales, bones, talismans and more. Riku hadn't noticed that he'd been moving until he was actually standing at the table, looking at the contents of the small stand.

The woman smiled wide, her eyes telling of untold knowledge waiting to come out as she watched him closely.

"Is there any particular reason for you to go casting curses like that?" she asked, the curiosity of a child coming through in her voice. "Letting your anger get out is a good thing, but you should be careful with what you say, lest it could cause some unknowing passer by unnecessary pain and trouble. Curses have the nasty habit of turning real even if you don't mean for them to do so."

"Sorry about that," Riku mumbled and scratched the back of his head as he tried to come up with a good explanation.

"Cursing won't help you find what you've lost. Lingering in the past doesn't help either. You need to look forward and start searching, fight for the right things and get a grip on who you are."

Riku blinked.

"What did you just say?" he asked, trying to understand just what had happened. This strange woman had spoken to him about things he had only thought about, things she couldn't possibly know about.

"What's the use in me repeating myself when I know perfectly well that you heard me?" the woman replied with a slight sign of annoyance.

Riku was about to say something back to her, but was stopped in his act, as a shimmer caught his eye and he found himself suddenly staring at a silvery white stone, polished smooth and adorned with a thin line of turquoise fur that was snaking its way around the oval stone. It was hanging from a dark turquoise leather thong among the other necklaces, but none of the other things spoke to him like this one did. It was as if it was meant for him to find it there.

The woman behind the table smiled.

"So the last of the stones picks its user," she said musing and took the stone from its hanging place, handing it over to Riku, who took it in his hand without objecting. As soon as the warmth of magic spread in his hand he knew it was a summon. _River Spirit._

"You know what this is, don't you?" he asked the woman and her glittering eyes gave him the answer.

"Angela knows a lot of things," she said. "Among those things I know that you're holding a heart, key wielder."

This made Riku raise his eyebrows in shock. "How did you…"

"Know? I told you, I know many things. Call me what you will, witch, fortune teller, herbal woman. I'm all those things and yet none of them. We all are only the things we decide to be. No one can decide for us what we are but our selves. You for one, I see as a brave fighter with a big heart, having the desire to help your friends and lacking in trust to your own power. You wield a powerful weapon and you have the unusual feat of being able to use more than one side of the strong forces of the universe but you doubt yourself and fear what might come out of it all should you take use of all that you have. Am I close?"

Riku reminded himself of closing his mouth as his fist formed around the summon stone. "You know you are," he said slowly.

Angela smiled again, looking him in the eyes. "You decide who you are. Your actions determine to the world whether or not your image of yourself is false or true. What you should question yourself is why you doubt your own heart."

"My darkness almost cost me my best friends and I don't intend to lose them again," Riku replied, feeling his defenses go up.

"True friends you can't lose, key wielder. They stay in your heart even when they are lost from your sight. Remember that."

A sudden thought made Riku smile.

"Do you happen to know where I can find any of them? Like the red haired girl who defeated the heartless just recently?"

Angela shook her head, but her smile stayed on.

"She passed my shop only moments ago, that's true, but I never stick my nose into others' business any deeper than I need to. Have faith in the knowledge that she is in this world and that she is safe. You'll find each other again in time."

"How come you know this?" Riku asked, almost knowing the answer before it came.

"Angela knows of many things," she said, chuckling at his returning smile.

"What about the stone?" he asked and showed her the summon in his hand. "What do you want for it?"

"The stone chose you. I have no right to it, therefore it is yours and no payment is needed. You don't have to pay for things that already belong to you."

A strange but welcome feeling of relief filled Riku as he walked away from Angela and her stand. Kairi was on this world and she had found friends to help her, just like he had found Hermione and Donatello. Sooner or later they were bound to find each other and meanwhile they could each on their side search for a way to find and save Sora from wherever the heartless had taken him. Even if the enemy was the very man he had hoped was destroyed once and for all in their last confrontation, the man proving himself more or less invincible, Riku somehow felt reassured that they would be able to beat him, once they were back together. He held the new summon stone tightly in his hand, feeling its dormant power respond to his own state of mind as he made a decision. No matter what had happened in the past, he was from now on going to live in the now and aim forward. He would get stronger and he would show his own doubting mind that he could overcome his fears and that he was strong enough to do so. The darkness was there just as much as the light and right now he had to remember that those forces were two sides of a coin. If he could use them both equally, he would be the one in control when the time came to match his powers against his worst enemy.

When he got back to the inn, Riku waited for the other two to return as well before he put his new resolve into action. In order to go on, there was one thing he had to do before he could continue this mission.

"Guys, I need to talk to you about something," he said with a low but steady voice as Hermione and Donatello sat down on the bed beside the one he was sitting on. "It's not an easy thing for me to talk about, so I beg of you to wait with your questions until I'm finished. If you wish to have nothing more to do with me after I tell you this, then I won't blame you and will thank you for the time you have spent in my company this far. If you stay, then I am more than grateful for your trust and help in what I have to do."

Donatello and Hermione both nodded their understanding, both of them sensing what this was going to be about, but none of them said anything about it. Instead they only waited for Riku tell his tale the way he wanted.

"Well, then," Riku continued, taking a deep breath to steady himself. "In order for you to fully understand it all, I'll have to start from the very beginning. This happened when I was about 14 years old…"


	33. Part 2: chapter 17 Troubling thoughts

**Chapter 17:2: Troublesome thoughts**

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><p>"<em>Imaginations exist and can be just as real and just as harmful and dangerous as physical states<em>." (C.G. Jung)

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><p>Sora stared into the mirror above the sink, his eyes showing very clear signs of sleep deprivation despite his intense cold-water-wash of the face. Small drops of water were still holding on to his skin, slowly running downwards to drop from his jaw or chin, but he didn't care about them. The dream of the night before had been turning in his head all morning and he couldn't make any sense out of it. Something told him that the dream was important, but he just couldn't see why. He sighed and pressed his forehead to the mirror glass as he leaned forward over the sink, trying hard to clear his mind. There was no use in getting all worked up over nothing. He had to focus on what was important instead, like finding Riku and Kairi and defeating the heartless. With a sarcastic smirk at the thought he whispered the words "déjà vu" to himself, the bitterness in the feeling following this act burning in his chest.<p>

"Sora? Are you done yet? I really, really need to use the bathroom, dude!" Luffy's muffled voice called to him from the other side of the bathroom door. Sora hardened his grip on the sink, his fingers cold and slippery from the water.

"Why don't you just use the bathroom in the corridor?" he called back, his voice sounding a lot more grumpy than he had intended for it to do and he was on the verge of adding an excuse for this, but as Luffy eagerly ran off without further questions, he kept it to himself.

_Great, now I'm getting all touchy and mean towards the friends I have with me,_ he reprimanded himself in his thoughts and bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut as a needle-prick pain flashed by in his chest. This wasn't good. He was brooding too much, letting the darkness inside of him have the better of him. He took a deep breath to steady himself and clear his thoughts before he opened his eyes and straightened himself up, putting a weak smile on his lips as if to fool himself that he was feeling ok.

But as he caught sight of his reflection, Sora felt his heart skip a beat and had to grab the sink edges again in fear of losing his balance completely if he didn't. Staring back at him from his reflection, Sora hadn't seen himself, but the face of a blond boy he'd come to know as Roxas. His nobody. He'd only seen him once, just before he joined with him at the _World That Never Was_, but he _knew_ that face. Shaking in his very bones from the shock, Sora dared himself to open his eyes again and face the mirror. This time, the face opposing him was none other than his own pale and scared persona and he let out the breath he had kept in.

"I'm losing it," he mumbled to himself, turning on the cold water tap once more and splashing his face with the invigorating liquid in a try to wake himself up properly and get rid of these hallucinations. "I need to sleep more," he mumbled as he rubbed his face dry with a towel.

As he unlocked the door and stepped out into his and Luffy's room, the memory of Roxas brought up another person who he'd wished to forget. So many bad things had happened since all of this started, but just about the worst thing still lingering in his memory was the person who had sacrificed himself just to save what was left of Roxas inside of Sora.

Axel had been a strange character that was hard to get right from the start, but in the end he had turned out to be one of their greatest allies, helping from behind enemy lines without anyone knowing it. A nobody was supposed to not have any feelings, but having been close to Sora's own nobody had somehow reawakened this feature in Axel, causing the man to act up against his superiors just to save the one person he cared about. A person Sora had taken away from him without even realizing it. An entire existence with connections and memories, wiped out the very moment Sora had opened his eyes. It made him feel sick with guilt as he thought about it, but he couldn't stop the thoughts from coming. What if it had been the other way around and Riku or Kairi had been the one disappearing for the benefit of someone else waking up? Sora didn't think he'd be able to cope with that at all. Would he even have been able to do what Axel had done and save the very person to blame for his friend to have disappeared? He didn't know, and the insecurity in this ate him up from inside. How could anyone say that he was good, after all the things he had done? How could anyone ever find it good to save him instead of someone else?

Another stinging sensation in his chest warned him of the darkness he knew was there, trying to get out through his growing distress. Sora inhaled deeply and straightened himself up from the hunched over position he'd been standing in. This wouldn't do. He couldn't stand here feeling sorry for himself and regretting things he'd done in the past. This way he wouldn't be helping anyone at all. He exhaled slowly and put on his long fingerless gloves, tightening the black straps to keep them up on his arms and forcing himself to think about absolutely nothing else but getting the gloves on. When he finished, he closed his hands into fists to test the flexibility of the fabric and was pleased with the result.

Will watched with growing concern as Sora came down the stairs. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping for a week and his face wore signs of heavy thoughts, the kind that could break a person. Something was definetly troubling him and Will wanted desperately to help him solve whatever problem he had on his mind, but didn't know how to get through to him. Whenever she had tried it in the past, he had just smiled and changed the subject, reassuring her that everything was fine. He was always so concerned about making others feel better, giving his light to anyone in need of it, but he didn't seem to see the need he had himself and this worried her. Even Luffy had noticed the gradually darkening mood of the key wielder, and the pirate wasn't exactly the most observant person she'd met.

"Are you sure you're ok? You look like you could need a good talk," Will said as Sora looked up and spotted her, his worn expression quickly transforming into one much brighter.

"I'm fine, Will, really, but thanks anyways. I just need to get a good night's rest and I'll be as good as new."

"If you say so. But if you ever change your mind, I'm here to help, you know," Will said and kept her eyes at his hoping to show him that she knew he was only putting on a show when he smiled like that. His smile softened and his blue eyes turned warmer as he looked right back at her, confirming that he understood what she was trying to tell him.

"Thank you, Will. I'll let you know when I'm ready to talk, ok? Just not yet. There are still too many loose ends even for me."

Luffy chose that moment to rush past them and towards the set breakfast table, seating himself just as Jim's mother put down a plate of scrambled eggs before him, smiling as she saw the look of reverie in his eyes. Sora and Will couldn't help but smiling themselves as the constantly hungry pirate started eating with great enthusiasm and decided to seat themselves at the table as well, while there was still breakfast left on it.

Later on that morning when the trio had eaten and checked their equipment for the upcoming journey, Jim came rushing into the common room where they had just entered. He walked directly up to Sora, his face revealing his own worry and excitement over whatever it was that made him rush in like that.

"Sora! Will! Luffy! I've just been to the space port to get you some of those healing potions I told you about last night and you can never guess what I heard while I was there!"

Sora and the other two looked at one another with obvious confusion, then turned to Jim again.

"We give up. What is it that has you this worked up, Jim?" Sora said, not sure whether to smile or not.

"There's been another heartless attack!" Jim burst out after looking over his shoulder to make sure no one else was in the room with them. As expected, all three of his friends went stiff, their muscles tensing and their minds rushing to make up plans for battle.

"Where?" Sora asked, his eyes suddenly cold and hard.

"At the port, close to the square by the hospital to be more exact," Jim informed them. "But that's not all. It was just like the last time, with a giant one and a number of smaller, human-sized ones. They apparently showed up out of nowhere and there would probably have been a lot more of them there now if it hadn't been for someone fighting them back and _defeating_ them!"

Sora's eyes went wide at this information and his mind raced with the implications of what this could mean.

"You mean, someone else with a keyblade?" he asked, his voice suddenly sounding hollow, and both Luffy and Will turned to look at him with curiosity and growing understanding.

Jim nodded. "Exactly that. I managed to get hold of a guy who'd been present during the whole thing and he told me the details of it. Apparently there were two human girls and a guy with black wings that did all the fighting. One of the girls used a double bladed axe and the other one had what the man described as a 'very strange sword' of some sort."

Sora's heart suddenly picked up speed and he felt his skin tingle, his head suddenly seeming a lot lighter on his shoulders.

"Kairi…" he whispered, a slow smile forming on his lips. "It _has _to be her!"

Jim smiled wide when he saw Sora's dark mood lift from his face.

"I figured as much, that's why I rushed back here as fast as I could to tell you and to get you up there. If she was there yesterday evening, there's a good chance she's still there today!"

Suddenly Sora's smile faltered somewhat and his friends got worried over the sudden change in him.

"What's the matter? Haven't you been searching for her since you first got here?" Will asked and Sora nodded.

"Yeah, I've been looking for her and Riku all along, but the Space Port is a big place with a lot of people. It will take forever to search it and she might not even be there now. That's the kind of time that we don't have." He turned to Jim. "I'm really glad you told me this, Jim, I am. It means a lot to me to know that she's ok and that she's doing fine in the fight against the heartless. From what that guy told you she seems to have found friends to help her too and that makes my decision a bit easier."

"You're not going to look for her?" Luffy asked, a bit confused.

Sora shook his head.

"No, I'm not. We need to get going to the next world and as much as I long to be with her again, Kairi can take care of herself and knowing that she is ok is enough for me right now. The heartless are spreading fast now, just look at all the new arrivals at this place," he said and gestured with his hand to the customers of the inn still eating breakfast in the dining hall. A young boy with a thick set of brown hair standing out from his head walked past them carrying a plate filled to the brim with eggs and bacon. His cobalt blue t-shirt with orange star print on the sleeves stood out sharply in the scenery, as did the goggles on his head and the large white gloves he wore. But what stood out the most about him was the knee high, green eyed, orange dinosaur jogging after him, calling dibs on the bacon.

"Each new arrival means another world lost. And Jim, you told us yesterday that even more are filling up the spare places at the port, some of them even opening up businesses of their own after having been here for months."

Jim nodded at this and both Will and Luffy realized what this meant.

"Looking for her would take up too much time from the mission of stopping the heartless and even though it tears at me to say it, I'll have to wait to look for her and Riku until after all of this. Hopefully, we'll end up meeting each other before that, but I can't spend any extra time trying to make it so."

"So, we're still leaving Montessor today?" Luffy asked.

"Yes. As soon as everything is packed, we'll have to get going," Sora confirmed.

Will noticed a change to the better in Sora's general mood, but she was still worried. The heavy thoughts were still there behind his brightened eyes and energized gestures. Somehow she wondered if it really was the best thing for him to do to put his own desires aside right now.


	34. Part 2: chapter 18 Gathering pieces

**18:2: Gathering pieces**

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><p>"<em>See the devil on the doorstep now, my, oh my. Telling everybody oh, just how to live their lives… Time is ticking and we can't go back, my, oh my. …/We've never been so many, and we've never been, so alone." _(Ana Johnsson, _We are_)

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><p>The dark master of the castle grinned as he looked towards the entrance of the room he was in. From the hall outside he could hear his servant's approach and from the sounds of it, he guessed that the creature had managed to capture yet another person of light to use as binding force for the crystal. And this one sounded a bit feistier than the last one. That one had proved to be a young balled boy in yellow and orange clothing and with blue arrow tattoos on his head and arms. He had been unexpectedly strong and stubborn and had almost escaped as his eyes and tattoos had taken on a blue glow, increasing his power somehow. But the magic weaved into the castle together with the darkness gathered in the hall had prevented the escape and the boy had been put in the dungeons together with the rest of the light-keepers they'd captured. He couldn't help but wonder where they got their strength from and how they managed to keep on fighting the inevitable, refusing to give in despite knowing it was useless to resist. He remembered that one of the captives, a hyper active strange looking blue hedgehog, had repeatedly tried to break out of his cell using one attack after another, until he was simply too exhausted to continue.<p>

Letting out a low, rumbling chuckle that could make anyone hearing it scream with the potential horrors that lurked within the sound, the red-eyed master waited with growing interest as his servant approached the room, dragging his prisoner along in an ebony black chain.

"Release me, you vile creature of darkness!" the young woman spat out as she pulled at the chain in yet another futile try to break free. The creature hissed at her without words, obviously getting tired of her ranting. It pulled at the chain in response, making the prisoner fall forward and land on her knees, making even more damage to the already torn skirt of her royally adorned dress of silken fabrics.

"Having trouble with the prisoner?" the master asked in his grim voice.

The servant bowed to him and pulled the young woman back onto her feet, making her look straight at the castle lord. Her clear blue eyes were vibrant with a determination close to hatred, but yet, the master couldn't see any darkness in her, a strange trait that had been more or less common to all the prisoners taken so far. Her golden brown hair was tangled, showing off her pointed ears and her dress torn, but it was easy to see that she was either a princess or a queen. She also had that special aura around her that told him she inhabited a great power, one that only she could control. Not that it helped her here, in his castle of dark rituals and spells that prevented any light powers to escape or break in. The powers he'd gained with the acceptance of the heartless had indeed been useful to him.

"And who do we have here?" he asked slowly, enjoying the growing horror in the captive's eyes as she saw his features underneath the wide hood.

"_Princesss of Hyrule, my lord,_" the creature replied with its hissing voice. "_The princesss Zzzzelda. Guardian of the mighty Triforce. A being of light who I managed to capture asss the heartlesss took her world._"

Its master waved at it with his hand, as if to tell it to leave, but when the creature pulled at the chain, the elfin princess tugged back, turned around and spat at the castle regent.

"As long as I live, Hyrule will live through me and no matter what you do, the hero of time will take you down and restore the light in the world!"

The servant creature lashed at her with its long black tail, hitting her across her face and almost making her fall back to the floor.

"_Sssilence insssignificant wench! Thisss isss the lord and massster of darknesss eternal! Your world isss no more. Your hero isss no more. Many are the worldsss he hasss taken before yoursss."_

"Come now, my faithful friend. Don't be so harsh on our precious guest," the master lulled with his thundering voice. "You see, my dear princess," he said and turned towards the woman who's heart was slowly breaking and who's hope was faltering, "the hero you have your hopes on only exists if your world exists and since your precious world is nothing more but a memory, so is your hero. In this place,_ I_ rule. You will find that your powers don't mean anything within these walls. You just keep your light shining and be a good girl and this will all be over soon."

His red eyes reflected in hers and he was pleased to find that her fighting spirit had faded away to be replaced by a great fear and sorrow. This was good. For as long as the keepers of light didn't waste their powers on meaningless escape-plans, their power would remain within them and be at its highest when needed. And there was going to be a need of a large force of light to forge the dark crystal of old.

"Now, before you show our guest her room, is there anything else to report?" he asked the servant as he straightened his back.

"_New ssshardsss, my lord. In two worldsss they were found. Hyrule's shard was lossst to usss, but the heartlesss sssearch for it_."

The creature reached inside its cloak and presented its master with the mentioned shards, gleaming like black glass in its hand. The castle ruler took the shards offered to him and put them in the pouch together with four other shards that he'd been brought before.

"Anything else?" he asked as he stuffed away the pouch inside his own robes.

"_The keybearersss are getting troublesssome,_" the servant hissed hesitatingly. "_Ssseemsss our friend hasss a bad memory too. He sssaid they were two, but I now know, they are three. The girl asss well asss the boysss hasss a key. They are locking worldsss away. And they are hard to fight, my lord."_

The master harkened at the mentioning of the third keyblade and brought a boney hand to his chin, rubbing it in deep thought, humming as he tried to figure out what this new information could mean to him.

"You may leave now, and take the girl with you. I will call for you before you leave for the next world," he said to the creature, and it made a short bow before pulling the chain again to make the captured princess move. She started walking slowly, following the creature without further objections, but just before she left the room, she turned around, making eye-contact with the red-eyed one.

"Beware of your own greed, for it will be your downfall," she said, her voice suddenly deep and mighty, all together different from the young and broken voice she'd recently used and when she turned again to keep following her warden, the master huffed at her slightly predictable prophecy.

They all managed to spell out a curse or dark fortune for him as they gave in to their own fears, but this one had almost convinced him. It was a powerful thing, the light inside of a true heart. Making even fantasies sound believable.

As he turned to walk to his throne room, he found himself facing the man he'd been about to send a message for and his eyes glowed with liking of his ally's timing.

"Speak of the devil, and he will be standing at your doorstep, they say," he greeted the young man. "I have new shards for you, and information I think you might find quite valuable."

"Let me be the judge of that," Xehanort said in a dark voice as he received the pouch of shards.

"There seems to be a third keywielder among your enemies."

The white haired man raised an eyebrow at this and looked with golden eyes at him.

"Really now? That is truly interesting. Let me guess, the little princess?"

As his ally nodded, Xehanort's lips stretched into a wicked grin.

"I see. Well then, I better make preparations to greet them, don't I?"

* * *

><p><em>Another memory flashed by in his mind and he flinched. <em>

_Faces long gone to him suddenly had a meaning as this memory was added to the meager amount of remembered scenes of a life he had since long left. He knew names now and had emotions connected to those names and their owners as he reviewed the memories collected this far. Whatever it was that caused this reawakening of his, he hoped it was going to continue, for somehow he felt that it was important that he did remember._

_He could sense a vast darkness surrounding him and an even greater force of it being gathered nearby. Perhaps this was the reason for his conscience to reawaken? He made a mental note to himself to try and investigate these facts further as soon as he got another clue to the puzzle._

_A soft smile and big eyes shining with love and trust for him was displayed in his mind and he felt an aching in his non-existing chest. Aqua… That was her name. He had loved that name. He still loved it. Realizing this thought, he corrected himself. He loved the woman the name belonged to. The question was, had she known he did?_

_Sinking deeper into his memories, he started to feel a little less incomplete._

* * *

><p>"What can we do, dear friend?"<p>

He looked at the woman next to him and shrugged, sad that he had no answers to give her. "I don't know. This world is in an uproar and sceneries that haven't changed since they were created at the beginning of time are suddenly twisting themselves into new shapes right before our eyes. You ask me what we can do, but I'm just as lost as you are, my friend. The Crystal of Darkness is gathering and there's no saying what will happen next."

She seemed to think his words over for a moment of fluctuating time, looking down on her hands gathered in her lap.

"I think…" she paused, as if uncertain of what she was about to say.

"What?" he asked patiently. He had learned to wait during his time in this never aging world.

She closed her eyes as if to concentrate on the words, then, as she opened them again, she continued.

"I think I remember my name." Her eyes were bright with a newfound certainty as she said this and he smiled, truly happy for her discovery.

"I've been waiting for you to say that, master Aqua," he sighed and saw the surprise spread in her expression at his words. "I've known your name for some time now, even though I've never met you. I don't know how it is so, but that's the truth. The reason I haven't told you before, is mainly because I didn't want to upset your wounded heart. One does need to be ready for that kind of information before it is given."

She nodded slowly, somehow understanding what he meant.

"And your own name?" she asked, her voice soft and still demanding.

"I've been called many names. Sometimes I'm having a hard time remembering which the real one is, but yes, I remember it as well. Even though I didn't when we met."

Aqua kept quiet, her blue eyes not leaving him.

"It's Ansem. I was a professor and a scientist of some sort when all of this mess began. They even called me 'the wise', although I'm rather sure of the fact that I was far from wise in what I did. Just look at where I've ended up." He lifted his hands up to make a vague inclination towards their surroundings and Aqua nodded in understanding.

"I know what you mean by that, but please don't be so quick to judge yourself in such a manner, Ansem my friend." She took his hand and smiled as he turned his eyes to her. "I'm here too, and the things I remember of my life don't tell me about a person unwise or bad. This place can't be a place for punishing those who did wrong. If it is, then my memories tell me lies. And I can sense in my heart that you are a good person. I trust my heart, if not my memories."

Ansem looked into her eyes and finally gave in to her reasoning with a nod.

"Alright then. What do you suggest we do, master Aqua?"

She looked to the twirling clouds in the grey sky.

"We wait for a new opening to appear and stay ready to get through it once it does. With the pieces coming together at this rate, it is bound to be another break in the veil between worlds soon enough."

Ansem directed his own eyes towards the sky and felt a glimmer of hope be awakened in his heart.

"Then let us search the skies together and prey that all will end well."

* * *

><p>There was a hollow echo as a cell door was slammed shut and the other prisoners looked up from their silent ponderings as they heard the sorrow-mixed roar of anger from the woman who'd been locked up. The hissing laughter of the shadow-like servant of the castle master rose disliking and annoyance in most of them, while some felt only a great sadness for their fellow prisoners and the knowledge of what yet another captive must mean. Another world conquered and yet another sliver of hope deleted.<p>

"That's some fightin' spirit you've got there lassie," one of the new prisoner's closest neighbors said with a soft smile audible in the voice as soon as the creature had left them alone in the meager light of a few torches in holders on the corridor wall. "You'll have to take it easy for a while though and save your strength. These cells are bloody tough." He sounded like a good and warm-hearted person and she felt an instant trust for him. Eager to have someone to talk to in this darkness, she moved closer to the barred opening between their cells.

"What do you suggest I do then; sit and wait for someone to magically save us and restore what that dark creature has destroyed?" she asked into the shadows. The torch light created soft moving shadows in the prison chambers, but the fire's glow was enough for her to discern that the man on the other side was rather large in his build. He was sitting in the deepest shadows with his back propped up against the wall in the corner farthest away from her. He sighed heavily, sadness creeping into his voice when he spoke again.

"No, we must never give up. All I'm sayin' is that you should save your energy. Bangin' these bars won't serve ya' any good. We've all been there and done it already."

They fell silent for a while, letting the other sounds of the prison take over. Dripping of water from the ceiling and walls echoed in a slow irregular rhythm while the soft clicking of invisible rat claws patted across the corridor floors.

"I'm Zelda, by the way," she said, feeling a need to fill out the silence.

"Shrek."

She wrinkled her nose as she turned the name over in her mind.

"That's an interesting name," she finally said. "Haven't heard it before."

The other made a short laughing sound.

"Heh, well, I've never heard of a lass named Zelda, either, so I guess we're even, ey?"

Suddenly there was a soft noise coming from the cell on the opposite end of Zelda's and she turned to look, meeting the scared dark eyes of a young boy with black hair. She walked over there and as she got closer, she noticed with some surprise that he had what looked like cat's ears on the top of his head.

"Has your world been taken too?" he asked in a low voice.

Zelda nodded. "I fear so, yes. What's your name?"

"Ritsuka."

"Well then, Ritsuka," Zelda said with her kindest voice as she bent down to sit on her knees beside him. She slid her hand through the bars and gently touched his cheek. "I'm Zelda. The best we can do now is to not give up the hope that our loved ones are still somehow alive, searching for us and fighting to get here and help us. In the mean time, we need to stay brave. Who knows, together we might even be able to break free from here. We just need to figure out how."

The boy looked up at her with doubting eyes. Suddenly Zelda found his appearance becoming more mature. Fear and insecurity had made him look a lot younger than he actually was.

"You really think so?" His question was filled with doubt and disbelief as his dark eyes stared into hers, demanding a truthful answer. Zelda closed her eyes for a moment, searching inside herself for that reassuring light that always had made her feel safe. With a relieved sigh she found a small glimmer of it still active in her heart.

"I _know_ so," she said, feeling the warmth of faith growing inside her chest.


	35. Part 2: Chapter 19 Moonlight

**Chapter 19:2: Moonlight **

"_I am the shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright" (This is Halloween_ from the movie _The Nightmare Before Christmas_)

* * *

><p>"Would you look at that moon! By Natt it's big!" Astrid exclaimed the moment she stepped out into the new world, almost blocking the way for Kairi and Hauru, who had to give her a friendly shove on the shoulder to get her to move aside.<p>

"What are you talking about?" Kairi asked her with a giggle threatening to burst out from her lips as she saw the expression of awe in the viking's face. Then she turned her eyes towards the bright light in the sky and found herself gawking at the sight. The full moon shone like an orange night light, hanging big and low in the dark sky. Beneath it the skyline of a vast city was visible, skyscrapers rising high enough to look as if they touched the giant in the sky. "Wow," was all Kairi could say and Astrid smiled wide as she forced her eyes to leave the moon.

"I know, right? I've seen orange moons before, but this one's something extra."

Hauru took a look at the spectacle himself and hummed in thought. "The color happens as a trick of the light as it hits the atmosphere, and the same trick of light also makes us see the moon as bigger than usual when it is close to the horizon," he explained slowly, his eyebrows furrowing. "But you're right about it being unusually large. I would guess that this world probably has a strong connection to it in some way. Stronger than ordinary that is."

Kairi nodded at this, sensing that he was right in his assumptions. The magic was thick in the air, she could feel it and it originated more or less from the heavenly body above the city. At least it felt like that.

A cold breeze went through the small clearing of trees where they were standing, letting loose a number of pale flower petals from the dark trees. The wind brought with it a new sensation, causing the hair on Kairi's arms to stand on end and in a flash she summoned the Soul Reaper to her hand, making her two companions flinch before readying themselves as well.

"Where?" Hauru asked and Kairi closed her eyes to focus. The heavy feeling of darkness seemed to come from somewhere up ahead. And it was moving fast towards the city.

With a start Kairi opened her eyes and started running, the others soon to follow. "It's heading for the city," she called back to the others over her shoulder as she ran. "And it's either a really big one, or really many of them."

Astrid squared her jaw and stretched her legs out full to be able to keep up with Kairi as they rushed past the first number of houses. "That doesn't bode well," she commented, thinking about all the humans living in the city who would become easy preys for the heart-devouring shadow creatures.

"Always one to understate things, are you?" Hauru lashed at her with a witty smile as he seemed to skid by her with his feet about two centimeters above ground.

"Hey, that's not fair! You're using magic!" she muttered at him, but Hauru only smiled and let his magic take him to a spot slightly in front of Kairi.

Suddenly, while running at the top of her ability, Kairi sensed another power coming close, then it was in front of them, moving faster than them and probably going for the same target. She tried to catch a glimpse of what ever this force might be, but couldn't see anything, until she happened to glance upwards. On the rooftops she could spot a number of fast moving silhouettes of varying sizes. They seemed to move fearlessly over the risky terrain their location offered, taking graceful long jumps that at times were so fast that they almost seemed to disappear.

"Hey, guys, we've got company," she said to Astrid and Hauru and nodded towards the roof tops. "I think we might not have to take this fight on our own after all."

"Let's wait with the relief until after the battle, shall we?" Astrid commented this and finally got up beside Kairi.

The trio rounded a corner and rushed into a full blown battle, a group of long-legged humanoid heartless being burned to cinder before their eyes as a large ball of thundering fire was flung towards them.

Hauru quickly pulled up a protective field around himself and the others, barely succeeding before the thundering heat hit the shimmering wall of magic. It felt like being thrown into the middle of an inferno and for a moment all they could see was wildly whipping flames. And then, a second later, it was all gone, leaving the trio wide-eyed with a slight shock at the experience. However, it only took them a few seconds to recuperate and grab their weapons of choice to get in the fight, slashing down the heartless that came towards them. There were the ordinary shadows as always, but also some Neo's and a new type of heartless that was somehow way harder to get rid of than the others. These were the ones that looked like tall, long-legged women. The bodies were thin and the legs ended in needle-point tips instead of feet, while the arms ended in hands that looked more human than that which any other heartless had shown before. The heads were ovals of black with almond-shaped yellow eyes. Around their bodies were long pieces of fabric wrapped, hanging loose in some parts to move eerily in the air around the creatures. There seemed to be about seven different colors to mark the differences between each type and Kairi didn't exactly like what this was insinuating.

"In between themselves they are able to use all kinds of magic," she muttered as she tried to decide what attack would be the most effective against such a divided crowd of enemies. One of the humanoid heartless in pale blue suddenly turned and lashed out at Kairi with a part of its clothing, the fabric seemingly alive and wriggling through the air like a snake, speeding around her arm with lightning-quick movements and as the heartless pulled at the sash, Kairi stared in shock as her hand was being encased in a crystal clear ice that quickly spread up her arm. It had reached her shoulder before Hauru had a chance to react and throw a fire-spell at it, manipulating the flames to move along the fabric and burn the heartless at its other end. The ice covering Kairi's arm dissipated with the release of the fabric and she grabbed harder at her keyblade, feeling a bit numb in the fingers of her recently thawed hand.

"Ok, let's stay away from their clothes, then," she said and Astrid grinned wide, swinging her axe around in her hand.

"Sounds like a neat challenge," she said before rushing into the mass of shadows, slashing them down as she went.

A rolling thunder suddenly rumbled above their heads and without warning, the entire field of heartless was showered in balls of lightning snaking out with the speed of light and hitting the targets almost as if the electricity itself was alive and on the hunt. Kairi even thought for a moment that she saw the head of a dragon move at the front of the flashes. The lightning had barely faded off before a silvery mist flooded the enemies still standing, turning them into icicles within seconds. Astrid had barely made it out of the area before the lightning had hit and was now standing next to Kairi, short of breath from her panicked sprint and with slightly burnt hair at the bottom of her long blonde braid, staring in wonder at what was happening before their eyes. As soon as the freezing mist cleared, the few heartless still standing were attacked by an all-consuming wall of fire. As the flames faded out, all that was left was a barren area of burnt asphalt.

But Kairi and her friends had but taken a step forward from their place of hiding, as new heartless started to rise from the ground.

"This is rather creepy, you know," Astrid said to Kairi and took a new grip on her axe. "How are we supposed to fight them when someone else is doing their best to obliterate everything in their way?"

A rope of golden light lashed out to wrap itself around a Neo Shadow as it rose from the ground, squeezing tightly until the creature lit up like a torch and disappeared.

Kairi huffed and lowered her eyebrows, taking aim.

"Ok, my turn," she said and swung the keyblade around, releasing the Soul Defender attack, hitting each and every one of the heartless in the spot at once, their crystallized stolen hearts slowly fading away on their upwards travel.

"That better get their attention," Astrid hummed approvingly as Kairi straightened herself up.

"Who's there?" a young woman's voice called out, sounding rather fierce.

Kairi and her friends slowly stepped out of the shadow of the building that they had used to take cover behind. With the paling moon as background, they could see a group of seven women standing atop a building, looking down at them. The tallest of them, standing farthest to the left, moved forward and Kairi could finally see her features. She was dressed in what looked like a tight fit white suit with a short skirt of dark green that matched a sailor collar and choker around her neck, long white gloves on her arms and a large pink bow was placed over her breasts. Her long brown hair was tied back in a high placed pony tail and a golden tiara headband was seen behind her thick bangs.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Kairi recognized the voice from before and stepped in front of the others. "My name is Kairi, and this is Astrid and Hauru. We are here because we fight the Heartless, just like you," she said, addressing the tall woman with the thought that she might be the leader of this group. "We are on the same side and should aid each other in the fight. And may I add that we better settle this soon, because those heartless that you took care of a moment ago will soon come back and we better be prepared for them when they do."

Now the short woman in the centre of the group stepped forward, putting a calming hand on the other's shoulder. She was dressed in a similar fashion; only her details were a navy blue at skirt and collar and reddish pink in the bow at the chest, the choker and the top of the gloves. Also, while the first one had dark green city boots, this one wore knee-high boots in the same color as the bow. In her hand she carried a scepter of sorts and in her corn yellow hair she had red round jewels placed within two balls of hair that were the root of two extremely long pigtails flowing out behind her as she moved. This woman looked a lot more serene and as she turned her large blue eyes towards Kairi, the keyblade wielder felt a deep connection in her heart. The woman standing on the rooftop was a princess and more. She was the very essence of this world personified. If Kairi didn't know it better, she'd believe she was looking either at a princess of heart or the heart of the world incarnate.

Without really knowing why, Kairi instinctively fell down on one knee in a bow before meeting the blue gaze again.

"We wish to help you and believe me, you will need my help if you are ever to save this world from the shadows," Kairi said with a strong carrying voice and the blond woman gave her an approving smile and a short nod. A prickling feeling in her neck told Kairi that shadows were gathering behind her and she raised her keyblade in salute to the women on the roof before turning towards the threat.

Suddenly all seven of the women on the roof jumped down to stand by their side, each and every one charging up whatever attack they were capable of in wait for orders.

"Your weapon can finish them off for good, isn't that right?" a woman with short blue hair and mainly light blue attire asked Kairi, producing a thin film of blue that formed itself as a visor before her eyes, filling up with symbols as the woman looked at the Soul Reaper.

Kairi nodded an affirmative on that assumption and charged the weapon in question with light before sending off the Soul Defender towards the group of attacking shadows.

"Sailor Moon! Tell the others to aim the attacks so that the Shadow Senshi move towards Kairi's attack range!" the blue-haired woman suddenly called out towards the blonde with the scepter and she gave the order to the rest of her team. Kairi turned to the blue-haired one with a smile on her lips.

"Thanks! That will sure make things easier," she said and the other nodded.

"I figured as much from the data given at your attack just now," she replied and put her hands together in a gun-pose, spinning on her toes as a white light built up on her outstretched fingertips. She stopped the spin and fired off the freezing mist from earlier towards a group of red-clad heartless, causing them to freeze. Kairi was quick to finish the ice-covered heartless.

They worked together through the masses in a similar fashion, Kairi actively shifting between magical attacks and physical ones in order not to empty her magical reserves too fast while she moved among the other combatants, shifting her partner every time an area was cleared. Each individual in the team of female fighters that had joined them had their own strengths taking power from the elements and forces of nature. They used varying attacks, sometimes combining attacks together with another team-mate to make it more powerful. Whoever they were, Kairi could easily tell that they were powerful beyond all doubts. And in all its irony, the smallest and most timid looking one of them, the one called Sailor Moon was the strongest. Kairi sensed that even though her attacks came scarce in comparison to the others' and didn't do as much harm as them either, there were much more power inside the blonde than she showed here and now.

They had been fighting for about an hour when Kairi made the assumption that they were just about to be finished. She left the orange clad blonde whom she'd learned was called Sailor Venus and her red clad raven-haired partner, Sailor Mars, and jumped to the side and let a tall, short-haired blonde in dark blue and yellow attire get in front of her. The woman, Sailor Uranus, raised one fist above her head, forming a massive ball of fiery light above it before spreading her fingers wide and with a thundering voice she called out the attack she'd charged up, sending the ball of red hot light plowing through the mass of shadows before them, ending in an earth shaking explosion. The attack was followed up by her brown-haired comrade in green, Sailor Jupiter, who called down thunder and lashed out the massive beast of lightning that Kairi and the others had seen earlier.

"There are still a number of yellow ones over by the building!" Astrid called out from somewhere to Kairi's left as she spurted forward to finish off the stunned and burnt heartless left in the backwaters of the powerful display she had just witnessed. She moved over to the mentioned spot and found herself running side by side with a sailor soldier in dark petrol attire and hair in the same color, only a shade lighter, presenting herself as Sailor Neptune. As they closed in on the targets, lightning manipulating yellow Shadow Senshi heartless, Sailor Neptune was enclosed in a bright petrol light for a moment as she ran, the light concentrating itself at her hands within a second, forming a similar large orb as the one that had shook the ground previously, only this one was a color of deep sea green and as it was sent off, it depicted a tsunami of pure water-based energy, leaving the enemies completely defenseless as Kairi swept through their ranks with a Sonic Blade attack. She stopped and breathed hard, looking around herself to check the area for any stray heartless, and found none. She wiped her forehead clean of sweat and waited as the other fighters closed up around her. She was exhausted. The battle had to be one of her most intense ones since she started this journey, even if the enemies hadn't been among the largest or even most dangerous ones she'd encountered. Her magical powers were on a low, despite her careful balancing of attacks and her muscles screamed out for rest. A hot shower and a soft bed was at the top of her wish-list right in that moment and she could see that Astrid and Hauru were quite worn out as well, as were most of the sailor soldiers. Hauru gave Kairi and Astrid a small bottle of green reviving potion each and took one for himself. Kairi gladly gulped down her ration and felt her energy returning somewhat, but her muscles still felt sore and her magic was still on the low.

Sailor Moon stepped forth, her long yellow pigtails billowing out seemingly weightless behind her as she walked, and she reached out her hand for Kairi to take. Kairi accepted it and shook it, giving the soldier leader a tired but appreciative smile, receiving one in turn.

"We are in great debt to you and your friends Kairi," the blonde said with a soft voice. "Without your weapon and your knowledge of how to defeat the heartless, as you call them, I guess we would have been fighting them still."

"Just don't think it's over yet," Astrid said, putting her axe back in the holder on her back that Hauru had made for her. "The heartless we took care of just now were only one batch out of many."

Kairi nodded. "She's right," she said and turned her eyes back to Sailor Moon. "The heartless may be gone for now, but they are bound to come back in same or greater numbers, if this world's heart isn't sealed."

"Sailor Mercury," Sailor Moon said, calling the blue-haired soldier to her side, "is there any way in which we can find out where the heart of the world is?"

Kairi, Astrid and Hauru made big eyes at the request, but Sailor Mercury only produced the visor before her eyes and made some notes on a small portable screen of sorts in her hand and a moment later the visor was drawn back.

"My calculations might not be exact, but I measured the energy flows of the world, basing my search on the power Kairi here uses to power her weapon, and there is a possibility I might get a good reading by noon."

"That is more than I could ever have hoped for," Kairi said, surprised and relieved at the news. Not having to blindly search for the keyhole would most certainly speed things up.

"So what are we to do until then?" Sailor Mars asked, rubbing her tired eyes as she spoke.

"Get some rest and make up a plan for what to do once we find the location of the heart," Sailor Moon said, looking pretty tired herself, just barely being able to keep back a yawn.

"Sounds good and all, but someone really should keep watch, in case those things come back," Sailor Uranus said, sounding rather grumpy and annoyed.

Sailor Moon made a childish frown, causing Kairi to re-think some of her perception of the woman. "Can't we just let Luna and Artemis do that? They've been at home sleeping all night. And I really, really need to sleep!" she said with a tired whine to her voice, her eyes sad as she looked at the soldier in marine.

"Actually," Sailor Venus cut in, her long golden hair swaying as she moved a little to the side to get closer to Sailor Moon, "I think that's a good idea. After all, we do need to rest up if there are to be another fight soon, right?" she said, turning to the marine soldier, who looked from Sailor Moon to the other blonde and sighed.

"Fine," Sailor Uranus said, pulling her hand through her short hair in an annoyed move. "I guess Sailor Venus is right. Catching some sleep won't harm any of us," she muttered and the soldier standing next to her, Sailor Neptune, leaned in on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Come now, dear, you need the sleep as much as anyone else of us. It's ok to be tired," she said with a soft smile and then turned to Kairi. "Don't mind Sailor Uranus' attitude, she's just a bit on edge ever since the shadows first showed up."

Suddenly Sailor Moon flinched, as if she just remembered something important and turned to Kairi. "Hey, by the way, how do we get in contact with you if something should happen? Where will you be until noon?"

Kairi took a look at her companions who urged her on with silent gestures, then sighed and turned back to Sailor Moon.

"Well, it would be sort of nice if you could show us a place to stay, because we're not really from around here and getting back home to sleep will serve us no good, since we'd have to turn back around before we got any sleep at all." It was only half a lie, but Kairi hated it. She wasn't good at lying and she didn't like doing it, even though it was sometimes necessary to do so.

Sailor Moon smiled. "Hey, Sailor Jupiter," she called for the green soldier. "Do you think you have room for Kairi and her friends to sleep on the couch or something?"

* * *

><p><em>Author notes: Thank you for your patience! I've been a bit... err... lazy? Forgetful? Anyhow, now I'm updating this story again. ;) And yes, I chose the world of Sailor Moon for Kairi's gang's next playground. :3 I hope you like it! :D Silverspegel_


	36. Part 2: Chapter 20 Apples and Shadows

**Chapter 20:2: Apples and shadows **

_Sharks swim even in the calmest of waters. (Old saying)_

* * *

><p>Sora felt as if his head was going to explode and slowly forced his eyes open, getting dimly aware of his strange position. He was lying on his back, or rather most of him was lying on his neck, while the rest of his back was leaning towards a tree of some sort, and his lower region bending over so that his feet almost touched the grassy ground he was lying on. That would explain the headache. He swayed his feet to the side, resulting in a rough crash to his side and the headache was quickly getting friendly with its partner dizziness.<p>

"Ow," Sora managed to huff out groggily as he tried hard to clear his mind. He tried sitting up, but his legs felt a bit strange, not quite bending the way he wanted them to. Once he was sitting up, no matter how strange it felt, Sora decided to open his eyes again and blinked a couple of times to clear his vision. He was sitting in what looked like a forest of apple trees. And a number of steps away from him he spotted what looked like a pale peach colored small horse with black mane and tail. The animal seemed to have crashed to the ground head first, looking pretty much out of it. There was something off with it though. Sora thought for a while as he tried to figure out what was wrong, then realized that the horse had a straw-hat-adorned Jolly Roger marking on its hind and a very familiar straw hat on its head.

"Luffy? Wait a minute…" Sora mumbled and looked down on his hands, only to find out he didn't have any hands. He had tan colored hooves. And the reason for his feeling of strangeness while sitting, was simply due to the fact that his legs were now the hind legs of a horse. Looking at his hind, he noticed he too had a marking, but his showed the Kingdom Key, a silhouetted heart and some stars. His sand colored tail flapped with annoyance at the unexpected transformation. Then he realized that he couldn't see Will anywhere. He got up on all fours and took a few swaying steps forward to get a clearer view of the area, turning his head really slow in order not to worsen the headache.

"Will? Where are you?" he called out, stepping closer to Luffy as he did. The pirate-turned-horse started to move and slowly opened his eyes.

"Could you please not yell, Sora? My head hurts," he mumbled as he tried to get up.

"I can't find Will," Sora explained and gave his friend a supportive shove of his head against the pirate's side to get him up on his hooves.

"Wait, are you a horse?" Luffy asked, blinking his drowsiness out of his eyes. Then he looked at himself and whistled. "Oooh, I get it. We're transformed again." He turned his head and smiled wide. "Cool! I've got a tattoo!"

Sora rolled his eyes at the comment. "We need to find Will, so stop chasing your tail, ok?"

Luffy looked up from his circling and took a look around. "So, where is she?"

Sora was about to smack his right front hoof into the pirate's head, when a familiar voice was heard from one of the tree crowns above them.

"Guys, I'm here," Will called out to them and the two rushed to the tree where her voice was coming from. "I'm sort of stuck…"

As they got there, they saw a purple horse tangled among the branches of the tree, head down towards the ground. Her red mane was partly covering her eyes, parting in the middle of her forehead where a short spiraling horn was placed. The black and green fairy wings on her back were flapping without success as she tried to wriggle herself out of there.

"No fair! She got wings!" Luffy wailed, earning himself an annoyed glare from both Sora and Will.

"Is everything nothing but a game to you?" Will muttered. "Can't you just stretch up and get me out of this mess?"

Luffy blinked and got a look in his face that clearly told them he hadn't thought about that.

"Sure," he said and balanced himself to stand on his hind legs, freeing his forelegs to reach up and grab her. Some branches broke and leaves and apples fell as Luffy pulled to get her free from the tree's grasp. She folded her wings and closed her eyes and soon enough she was back on the ground with a heavy thump, landing more or less on top of her helper as he tumbled backwards.

"Wow, this stuff is hard without fingers…" Luffy mumbled as he got up in a sitting position as soon as Will managed to get off of him. "Nothing to really hold on with."

"Lucky you can stretch enough to circle stuff then," Will pointed out and shook her head to get her mane all on one side of her neck.

"So, I'm guessing the Heart transformed us to fit in again," Sora said slowly as he once more looked around them in a try to find someone else in this vast apple-tree garden. "But where are we?"

Will shrugged her horse shoulders and flexed her wings, trying them slowly, before taking a jump up in the air to use them. Amazingly enough, the fragile looking fairy wings on her back did keep her aloft and she quickly moved herself higher up to get a look at the area from above.

"There's a farm of sorts further up this path," she said once she was back down on the ground with the guys and pointed with one of her hooves in the direction of the buildings she'd seen. "Shouldn't take too long to reach it."

After performing a quick healing spell on himself to get rid of the headache, Sora took the lead, galloping through the apple tree forest, eager to get going. He felt a need to keep himself busy in order to keep the dark thoughts out of his head. And galloping at full speed seemed to work pretty well. The speed and the wind in his mane and tail was exhilarating. Luffy used his flexibility to get ahead of him, stretching out his legs to get longer strides and stretching his back to get an even greater advantage. He smiled wide as he passed him.

"Oh this is FUN!" he laughed and bucked, his body snapping back to its original size before he continued the gallop.

Sora caught himself smiling at it and felt honestly amused by the whole thing and truly happy for a moment. He caught a glimpse of Will flying above them, doing loops and twirls as she went.

"Having fun?" he called out to her and she replied him with a high whinnying and dove down towards him in high speed, slowing down in time to just fly alongside him.

"This place seems so peaceful, don't you think? It's like you can't be truly sad here, or something," Will said with a smile. "And flying like this is, well, awesome!"

Sora was quick to agree with her. The place seemed to absorb all negative feelings and feed back positive ones instead. It felt good.

When they reached the farm Will had seen, they slowed down and took a moment to just breathe and get their act together before walking into the yard between the houses. The place was strangely quiet and suddenly Sora got on his guard. Something wasn't quite right.

"Uhm, shouldn't there be someone here?" Luffy said slowly as he looked around. Then he sniffed in the air and licked his mouth. "I smell apple pie!" he said and trotted ahead, despite Will and Sora trying to stop him in cautious whispers.

"Luffy! You can't just go off like that!" Sora muttered as he found him by the door to the barn.

Suddenly a Shadow heartless appeared, quickly followed by others and Sora got his keyblade out, while Will charged up her electric energy in her horn. Luffy jumped aside just as the first Shadow attacked and Sora dove for it, cutting it apart with the keyblade and then turned to take care of the rest.

Will shot off a beam of pink sparks and disintegrated three of them while Sora and Luffy took care of two and by the time the three that Will had taken out were reforming themselves, Sora was ready and cut through all three of them in one go.

He looked at the heart-shapes floating away from the places where the heartless had been and sighed, though he didn't dare to relax just yet. It had been long now since he'd last fought such easy enemies and the mere fact of how easy it had been defeating them, kept Sora's senses on alert.

"Hey, did you get that blade from Inu-Yasha?" Luffy asked, staring at Sora's keyblade and made the keyblade wielder himself notice the change in his weapon for the first time.

It looked more like a sword than a key now, with a white bone-like material making up a long, curved blade. At the hilt the blade split in two parts; one broader to make out the main shape of the blade and one thinner, like a wire, going out in a wide curve following the other part's shape. At the top of the blade the wire shaped three dents in the blade's profile before it met up with the other part at the top. The hilt itself was covered with a tuft of silvery white fur, much like the hair on Inu-Yasha's head, reaching down in a curve and almost meeting with the bottom of the handle. The handle was wrapped in old linen cloth and at its end dangled the keychain Inu-Yasha had given him before their departure. Sora smiled. _The Demon Fang_ sure stood up to its name.

With a shrug Sora let the weapon disappear. "Yeah, he gave it to me right before we left."

Luffy didn't listen though, having picked up the scent of apple pie once more. He kicked open the big wooden doors to the barn before neither Will nor Sora could stop him and walked inside with a smile on his face.

"Oh, _apple pie_…" he hummed as he tried to find the source of the smell that teased his nostrils.

"Who's there?" a voice called out from the dark inside the barn. Sora instantly moved forward and got in front of Luffy.

"I'm Sora and these are my friends. We just happened to pass by and decided to take a look and my friend Luffy here thought he smelled some apple pie," Sora explained quickly.

There came a short giggle from the darkness, followed by a hushing and then two figures stepped out from the shadows, one bigger and one smaller. The small one proved to be a pale yellow foal with red mane and tail and the bigger one was a warm orange colored horse with corn yellow mane. While the smaller one had a big pink bow on her head, the bigger had a worn brown cowboy hat. Both of them looked rather cautious as they got closer to Sora and the others, but the smaller started to smile as she spotted Sora.

"Your mane looks kind of funny," she said with a giggle. "And I've never heard of anypony having that kind of name."

"Apple Bloom!" the other huffed at her and Sora recognized the voice as being the one that had spoken before.

"I hope we're not doing something wrong by coming here, we just got a bit curious," Sora said and stomped down hard on Luffy's tail in order to keep him in place. The pirate whined.

"I'm hungry, Sora…"

"Don't be a baby," Will remarked as she got inside as well, folding her wings.

The orange one looked at them as if they'd gone mad.

"Wrong? By the apples no, I'm just glad to find another pony here to talk to!" she said with a relieved smile. "I started to think me and my sister were the only ponies still here," she added and came closer, reaching out a hoof to Sora, who placed his hoof against hers. She gave it an energetic shake. "I'm Apple Jack, pleased to meet ya'. Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Sora! And your friend did smell apple pie, only, we haven't got all that much left of it. He can have the piece that's left if he'd like."

Luffy was gone even before Sora had a chance to stop him.

"So, uhm, what's happened here then?" Sora asked while he tried to ignore the curious stare of Apple Bloom as the little one eagerly inspected him and Will.

"Well, beats me, really," Apple Jack said and scratched at her head with a hoof. "When I woke up this mornin', there was darkness all over the place, shadows movin' 'round like crazy and me and Big Mac rushed outside to get a look at things. Granny and Apple Bloom here stayed inside, but then these creatures showed up and…" Apple Jack fell silent for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued. "And now everypony apart from me an' Apple Bloom are just gone. We were 'bout to go out lookin' for the others when ya'll came here."

"Hey, you've got a key for cutie-mark? Cool! You're a locksmith or somethin'?" Apple Bloom said with a smile, turning her bright orange eyes to Sora.

"Err, no…" Sora replied and then turned back to Apple Jack. "Have you been outside of the farm to check?"

Apple Jack shook her head.

"No, but I figured I'd take Apple Bloom with me down to Ponyville after we ate some of the pie we managed to get with us. It can't be just Sweet Apple Acres that's been affected like this."

Sora nodded. "I think you're right. We'll come with you, if you don't mind."

"Fine by me," Apple Jack replied.

Luffy came trotting back from his quick meal, licking his lips. "That was _some_ pie! Too bad there was so little of it."

Sora rolled his eyes at him and Apple Jack giggled, amused by the look on the pirate's face.

"Ya' know, if you're hungry, we do have apples on them trees," she said and Luffy was about to go out the door when Sora stopped him.

"You can eat later, Luffy. We wouldn't want Apple Jack here to be out of apples, right?"

Luffy snorted at this, but he stayed put when Sora stepped away from him.

"Sorry, but he's got quite an appetite," Sora explained to the confused host. "He's the kind of, err, pony that would eat the apples, then have the tree for desert."

"No worries," Apple Jack said with a laugh. "Can't be worse than my uncle Apple Core. He ate just 'bout a ton of them apples before he stopped."

"Trust us, he'd eat the whole apple farm if no one was there to stop him," Will said and gave Luffy an angry stare to keep him in place. Suddenly she felt a tug in one of her wings and looked down to find that Apple Bloom was inspecting it with what looked like awe in her eyes.

"You're a unicorn-pegasus? How cool isn't that! And your wings are so pretty, all see-through and stuff! And you're cutie-mark looks so awesome! What is it?"

Will hung with her ears, uncomfortable with the closeness of the small pony's inspection.

"Well, it's a symbol of the fifth element, an energy that courses through all things living. It's called quintessence."

"Apple Bloom, don't be rude," Apple Jack reprimanded her. "Forgive my sister, she's just a little filly and she's very interested in cutie-marks since she hasn't got her own yet."

Apple Bloom didn't seem to have heard her sister though, because now she was next to Luffy, circling him and staring at his hind marking with an excited look in her eyes. "Wow! Are you like a pirate or something?"

"Well, yeah," Luffy replied with a wide smile. "I'm captain over my own ship even!"

"Cool! And is that a real scar?" the small pony said, almost bursting with excitement as she gawked over the scar beneath Luffy's eye.

"You bet!" Luffy replied, smiling wide with pride.

"Wicked!"

"Enough!" Apple Jack barked at her sister and lifted her up in her mane. "We bettel get goin' now, ol dose shadows migh ge back hele," she said between her teeth to Sora while carrying a pretty grumpy Apple Bloom out of the barn. Sora and the others followed her outside and together they all trotted down the road leading away from Sweet Apple Acres.

After a while, Apple Bloom had calmed down enough to be allowed to skip down the road on her own, which resulted in a skipping contest between Luffy and the filly; both of them laughing giddily as they went on. Sora smiled as he watched them play along. He wished he could be more like Luffy sometimes. The worst part about that wish was that he knew he'd been almost just as carefree once. Before the heartless came and before the keyblade started to feel heavy in his hands.

"I sure hope my friends are alright," Apple Jack said, interrupting Sora in his thoughts.

"They live in Ponyville?"

"Yeah, most of 'em. Rainbow Dash lives up in Cloudsdale, and Fluttershy has her home a bit outside of town, but Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all live in Ponyville. I just hope everypony's ok. Those shadows were, well, downright spooky if ya' ask me, lookin' like changelings almost. And the way the ponies on the farm just disappeared… well, I don't know what I would do if my friends disappeared like that as well."

"Don't worry," Sora said and put on a smile for her. "They're probably all fine and might not even know what's happened yet."

"Ya' think?"

"Sure," Will cut in. "And if the shadows show up, we'll be there to fight them. Sora here's an expert at that."

Apple Jack gave him an odd look. "Ya' know how to fight the shadows?"

Sora sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I know how to do it. They're called heartless. They take hearts, turning the heart's owner into a heartless like themselves. The brighter the heart, the more they want it."

"But ya' know how to stop 'em?"

"Yes," came the short but honest answer. Sora didn't want to go into the details of it all and Apple Jack didn't seem to need a more thorough explanation than this.

"**_LOOK OUT!"_**

The scream came from somewhere above them and suddenly Sora felt something hit him hard in his back, causing him to fall to the ground rolling and for a moment all he saw was a wild fuzz of pink curls, before he managed to get back on his hooves and help the pony who'd crashed into him to stand up as well. Apple Jack rushed forward with a growing worry in her features.

"Pinkie! What's happened? Why did ya' just fall out of the sky like that?"

The pink apparition that was Pinkie Pie looked around herself in utter confusion for a moment, before she located her friend.

"**AJ!** It's **_HORRIBLE_!"** she screamed out and threw herself on the orange pony with her blue eyes big and crazy wide open. "My pinkie-sense went haywire and then… and then… **BOOM!** I was flying through the air like a banana out of its peal!" She fell silent and took a look around at the somewhat shocked faces looking at her. "Oh, goodies! New friends!" she beamed and went straight to Will, giving her a hug around the neck. "I'm Pinkie Pie, but you can call me Pinkie if you like! What's your name?"

Before Will had a chance to utter anything though, the whirlwind of pink was already at Luffy and repeated her act, then she continued on to Sora and was about to hug him as well, when she for some reason stopped and instead stared into his blue eyes and almost pressed her forehead against his.

"You're…somewhat familiar…" she said slowly.

"Yeah, you landed on me," Sora reminded her grumpily and she blinked and smiled.

"Of course! So, who are all of you guys?" she burst out and paused, before giving Sora a hug as well. "Sorry, almost forgot you!" she said in explanation as Sora backed off with flushed cheeks and confusion written in his eyes.

"Are you… for real?" he asked slowly.

Apple Jack and Apple Bloom chose that moment to burst out laughing, and soon the others joined in on it, Pinkie Pie giggling like an over-excited chipmunk.

"Oh, that's just Pinkie Pie for ya'," Apple Jack said as she a moment later managed to catch her breath. "Too random for her own good."

"Well I think you're awesome!" Luffy exclaimed and Pinkie Pie smiled wide.

"Wicked! Let's have a staring contest!"

And the two banged their heads together, their eyes growing big and blank as they started the game with serious dedication. Will and Sora gave the two a long look, then turned to Apple Jack.

"I never thought I'd ever meet someone who's just as hyper active as Luffy," Will said in a giggle.

"Oh ya' ain't seen nothin' yet," Apple Bloom said. "One time she…"

"Quiet!" Apple Jack suddenly hushed her sister and perked her ears, as did the others. Even Luffy and Pinkie Pie interrupted their silent battle and listened. There was the sound of an explosion coming from Ponyville.

"What in all the apples is happening over there?" Apple Jack said and started to trot towards the town.

Pinkie Pie took a big skip forward and started to bounce alongside Apple Jack. "Oh, yeah, didn't I tell you? Twilight's been blowing things up all morning. First she blew up her bed, then some books, then…"

"She _what_?"

"Her horn was itching or something, at least that's what Spike told me. It was right before my pinkie-sense went haywire and I ended up flying over to you guys."

"Why didn't ya' say so!" Apple Jack grumbled and started to pick up pace, turning her trot into a full out gallop. "We have to help her out before she blows up something else!"

"Aye-aye," Pinkie Pie replied and produced a yellow workman's helmet seemingly out of nowhere and put it on her head. "Let's go!" she said and continued bouncing oddly after Apple Jack, somehow without any trouble keeping the same speed as the racing pony.

Sora, Will and Luffy were already galloping after Apple Jack, Luffy grabbing Apple Bloom and putting her on his back as he went past her. As they came closer to the town though, Sora and Will both noticed something that the others didn't. A certain chill in the air that told them to get ready for something more than just helping out Apple Jack's and Pinkie Pie's friend. And as they entered Ponyville, they had their suspicions confirmed.

"Heartless!" Sora called out and had the keyblade in his mouth within a second, bearing it down on the first shadow that jumped at them.

* * *

><p><em>Author notes: Yeah, yeah, shoot me, curse me and all that, but I LOVE My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic. So of course I had to have that world in the story! And introducing the world, I had to pick my two most favorite ponies of the series to show up first; AJ ( Apple Jack) and Pinkie Pie. I did aim for getting Raindbow Dash into this first part in the world, but decided to not do it, because it didn't really fit within my personal limit of pages per chapter (8, maximum 12 pages in Word, for those interested). Hope you like it! Oh, and as always, if you're interested in looking at some illustrations for the fic, check out my DeviantArt- account! ( . ).  Silverspegel_


	37. Part 2: Ch21 The once and future heroes

**Chapter 21:2: The once and future heroes (Narnia)**

"_For the child, for the light, for the heart I once had; I'll believe and foresee, everything I could ever be_" (Nightwish, _For the heart I once had_)

* * *

><p>Riku wasn't quite ready for what faced him on the other side of the Stargate. As he came out the other side, he tumbled into an icy white blanket of snow. Startled and somewhat dizzy from the travel through the gate, he scrambled to his feet as quickly as he possibly could in order not to get completely soaked by the snow melting on his skin and clothes. He had barely made it up on his feet, swaying somewhat from the loss of balance that the Stargate traveling brought, when Donatello rolled into him and caused him to fall over again. Hermione entered with a bit more grace, already getting better at handling the effects of the travel, and took two long strides before she managed to stop, all without falling over.<p>

"You'll get a cold if you don't get up from the snow guys," she said with a witty smile as she walked over to Donatello and Riku and started helping them up.

"Very funny," Riku said and brushed some snow off his shoulder while taking a look at their surroundings. "We'll all get colds if we can't find some place warm to go to."

Hermione smiled knowingly and took out her wand, flicked it in a complicated pattern in the air and said; "_Cedo calor corporis procedere"_. Within a second a soft orange glow settled around them all and faded into them. Riku noted with great satisfaction that the spell made him feel warm and his clothes were dried as well.

"The spell will provide us with the needed heat for our bodies until I take it away," Hermione informed them as she put the wand away. "But it doesn't mean it can go on for forever. I need to keep the spell up with a steady flow of magic and even though it costs me very little, it will finally start causing me physical damage if I don't watch it. So let's get moving!"

Riku nodded his agreement and Donatello followed them both, sweeping his reproduced cloak around himself as he went.

"Is that… a lamp post?" Hermione asked a moment later and all three of them rushed forth to get a better look at the object. It was indeed a black iron lamp post of the old style with a gas flame glowing inside the glass-provided cube at its top.

"It's kind of odd that it stands out here in the middle of a forest with no other lamp posts in sight," Hermione mumbled as she circled it in a try to find out its purpose. Donatello on the other hand was fully occupied by trying to figure out how a gas flame could be burning without a gas-supply.

Suddenly a large fox, the size of a regular dog, jumped out from the nearby brush and stopped to look at Riku in wonder.

"Are you, son of Adam, a wielder of keys?" the fox asked with a surprised expression in his eyes, the voice a little raspy and the words pronounced slowly, as if he was thinking hard at what to say for each word produced. Then he turned his head to look at Hermione, then Donatello, his amber eyes glittering. "And are you, daughter of Eve, perhaps a young witch and you, my green friend, a warrior of the shadows?"

Hermione, Riku and Donatello all stared at the fox to begin with, until the first surprise settled and Riku took a step forward.

"Yes?" he replied hesitatingly, looking at the fox in a try to figure out just what he wanted.

"Well then, I guessed so, but one can never be too sure these days. Aslan told me to go here and look for you. If you are enemies of the White Witch, then you better follow me and make haste before any of her spies sees us. Come!" the fox said and took off down a path among the trees. Riku motioned for the others to follow and went after the talking animal.

"Who's Aslan? And who's this White Witch?" Riku asked as he came along side the fox.

The animal took a quick look at him with big eyes of pure amusement. "Who's Aslan? Are you serious?" he snorted, laughter in his eyes. "He's just the greatest force of this whole kingdom, the light and the strength of all that is. He's the enemy of the White Witch and he has come back to lead us in the battle against her, to end the winter and free those captured." Then he took another look at Riku and his friends running behind them. "And what may your names be, son of Adam?" he asked as he turned his head back to see where he ran.

"I'm Riku," Riku said in response, wondering about what the fox meant by calling him a son of Adam. "And the girl's name is Hermione. The turtle is Donatello."

The fox smiled. "Yes, I thought he looked somewhat like a turtle, but he's an odd one for sure. You may call me Mickel," he said while keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "And I apologize for keeping this speed with you and my rude manners of not introducing myself first, but this is a time of war and every minute is precious."

"No offence taken," Hermione called from behind, having heard him. "We are here to help and the sooner we get to the point of this, the better."

"A sound suggestion," Mickel the fox said and suddenly he stopped. "But I'm afraid the fighting will have to start a bit sooner than expected, since the danger has found us."

Riku and the others tried to see what he meant, looking around them, but saw only trees and snow.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked, but barely had he uttered the words, before he felt it: A chilling presence making itself known through shivers up his spine and neck. "Heartless."

Among the trees they now could see slowly stalking shadows with glowing eyes. But not all of them were heartless. Some were actual animals, and as they stepped out from the shadows, they recognized the animals as rather large wolves with fearsome fangs flashing white at them, a deep rumble of a growl in their throats greeting the group.

"I knew it would pay off to follow you, traitor," the largest of the wolves said as he walked up closer to the fox. "Sly little liar. Did you truly think we would fall for your trickery the second time around?"

Mickel gave out a short but amused and teasing laugh. "Hah! Did you think that was my first trick, Maugrim, dear captain? How much of a fool you will feel to learn that I've tricked you far more times than that without you realizing it."

The wolf growled and the fur of his neck stood on end, but he didn't attack. Instead he put on a forced, toothy smile that sent shivers through the small group of friends. "I see, the jester is always ready to pull one more chicken from the hen-house," he said with an underlying growl still in his voice. Maugrim raised his eyes to look at Riku and the silverette realized that the wolf was just about as tall as he was.

"Let's see, this must be another trickery," Maugrim said, sniffing the air close to Riku and Hermione. "A son of Adam and a daughter of Eve, but not the ones predicted, am I not right? There were to be four of them and we already have them counted to be at the fields with the rest of your sorry lot. These here are not supposed to be here, are they?"

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. The muscular beast was just about the largest wolf she'd seen, but he was no werewolf and he was a bully. The temptation of wanting to smack his nose with a newspaper and call him bad was almost too great to resist, but she kept in mind that he was in fact bigger than herself and her wand was still in her robe's pocket, out of reach for a quick incantation.

Maugrim continued his inspection, coming around to Donatello, who only looked at him with mild interest in his eyes, while he thought of ways to take him down. The wolf seemed to be more perplexed by the turtle's relaxed attitude, than by his appearance. "Are you not afraid, half-shell?"

Donatello smirked. "If I were afraid of a rug like you, then I wouldn't have come here. I've seen worse beasts in my lifetime."

Maugrim growled at the insult, then returned to Mickel.

"I give you and your lot one chance to regret your choice of allies, since the Queen has given me orders to do so. She can be most pleasing and generous to the ones loyal to her cause and her crown."

"By Aslan, that Queen of yours will soon be revealed to be the evil witch she truly is!" Mickel hissed out, his fur on end and as he leapt forward, Riku called for his keyblade, Hermione took out her wand and Donatello threw off his cloak and gripped his bo-staff.

"Attack!" Maugrim called out to his pack and in an instant the small clearing erupted in chaos as wolves and heartless rushed forth to take on the quartette. Snow swirled around them as they moved and there were barely any time for them to finish one enemy before the next was on them.

Mickel had jumped at Maugrim with bared teeth. The fox, small in comparison to the giant wolf, had aimed for the throat and now he was hanging on to the wolf captain's jugular for all that he was worth while the wolf howled and growled. Maugrim rolled on the ground and jerkily swung his head back and forth in a try to rid himself of the enemy. Despite getting several injuries from the throws and blows to his body, Mickel hung on with a fierce expression in his eyes, refusing to let go.

Riku saw this and swung the keyblade against a heartless in wolf-shape and then rushed to help Mickel, charging the keyblade with light as he went. That's when he finally realized the change in the weapon, as it ate away at the energy fed into it.

The heavy metal pipes making up the blade started to pump up and down and the three sharp blades forming the head started to shift places with each other while the five-point star at the junction of blade and hilt started to glow with an eerie red light, symbols previously invisible suddenly showing up in a circle around the star, glowing in the red light while sharp blades of silvery metal grew from the dark small handles directly beneath the star. The silvery blades stopped as they'd reached the full length of the long metal hilt. The keyblade was short and heavy, but he could easily grip the long hilt with both hands and he felt an immense magical power within it.

"Mickel! Let go!" Riku called out to the fox, and hearing the seriousness in Rikus voice, Mickel obeyed and jumped quickly to the side before Riku unleashed the attack on Maugrim.

"_Circle Ceremony"_ he called out the name of the attack as it came to his mind and the red light in the star with the symbols traveled upwards to enclose the entire blade as the weapon left his hand in a spinning attack. The horizontal movement formed several red circles the same size as the blade to spin out towards the target while the keyblade itself spun in one place in the air, directed by Riku's outstretched hands. The red circles exploded with light as they hit the wolf and a wounded howling and yelps of pain came from the beast as the magic hit him straight on.

Riku choked off the flow of magic and ended the attack as soon as he knew that the wolf was defeated. The keyblade returned to his hand and the silvery extra handles shrunk back into the dark ones as the glow of red left the star. Riku checked quickly that Mickel were ok, before he moved into the battle with the remaining foes.

The wolves were large but easier to take care of than the heartless ones. They looked very much like wolves, only night black with yellow eyes glowing, but they moved faster. They also had the frustrating talent of their Shadow kin and could sink into the ground at any moment and crawl up underneath their opponent and grab at them from behind within the wink of an eye.

Hermione sent off a patronus to scatter the masses while she sent off expelliarmus spells on the ones coming closer to her, her eyes constantly moving to keep watch over the many enemies milling about. Donatello moved seemingly lightning quick, swishing his staff in front of him in fast and smooth moves, keeping the heartless at bay with the weapon as well as with well-aimed kicks of his strong legs. Mickel fought valiantly against the foes with his teeth bared and his light paws taking him out of harm's way in the last minute only to be back in the same spot a moment later, luring the heartless into the attack range of the others' more efficient weapons.

But no matter how hard they fought, Riku knew that this was turning into a losing battle, with the enemies steadily pouring into the clearing, cutting off their ways of retreat. He didn't have much magic left in him after sending Mickel and Hermione one healing spell each and he was quickly getting tired in his arms and legs, swinging the heavy keyblade he now possessed. In a short passage of time he managed to switch into the lighter Cat's Eye, feeling relived as the more or less weightless blade took the other's place, but the relief was short. Soon enough his worn muscles felt heavy again and there seemed to be no end to the enemies.

"We sure could use some help right about now," Donatello hissed between clenched teeth as he fought off yet another heartless.

That's when Riku realized he had the solution in his pocket. He had two summons that he could use as aid in battle and at least one of them didn't take too much magic to call forth. He quickly cleared the area around him from enemies and called for the summons in his thoughts, closing his eyes momentarily. The small sharp bullet with its triangular addition came to his mind's eye and he felt a surge of energy as he reached for it. He moved his keyblade so that he held it straight out in front of him like a gun.

"Give me strength… _Lara_!" he called out, the name springing to his lips as he released the energy needed.

A golden light erupted from the keyblade and suddenly they had one more person fighting by their side in the clearing. It was a tall, fit woman in brown short shorts and a tight turquoise sleeveless top. Her long brown hair hung in a single braid that swished like a whip as she moved in precise patterns around the battlefield, firing her two guns at every shadow moving towards them, hitting each and every target.

She reloaded swiftly and came back to back with Riku, who shifted to the heavy keyblade once more, charging it with what magic he had left and released the Circle Ceremony–attack as he and Lara began spinning around the clearing, the two of them together taking out the remaining heartless while Donatello took Hermione with him up in a tree to get out of the way.

Riku hastily shut off the flow of energy to the attack, gripped his keyblade and leaned on it for support as all his strength seemed to leave him the moment he stood still. He looked up and gave Lara an appreciative smile as she looked down at him with indifferent eyes and a playful smile on her full lips.

"_Well fought, keyblade wielder,"_ she said, her voice coming as a silk whisper in his mind, before she disappeared in a flash of golden light.

"Was that the summon?" Hermione asked, slightly out of breath as Donatello got her down on the snowy ground again.

Riku nodded. "Yeah. She was quite good, I think."

"Not bad at all," Donatello agreed. "Quite a babe too."

Hermione lifted a questioning eyebrow at this comment, but she kept quiet, figuring boys would be boys, after all. Instead she turned to Mickel, giving him a quick healing spell to get rid of some nasty bites on his back and neck.

"Now, if you are all ready to continue, we can't rest any longer," Mickel said, shaking his fur as if to shake away the unpleasant feeling of the former wounds. " We really need to move along and get ourselves to the battle camp."

Riku nodded, having regained some of his strength after Hermione had given him a healing as well. "Then let's move," he said, getting agreeing nods from his two friends.

As they ran after the fox leading the way through the spooky woods, Riku felt strangely light at heart. Hermione and Donatello were still by his side, despite having seen his transformation back when they had chased after Winry Rockbell. They had listened to his story last night without interrupting him and without even once questioning his choices and afterwards they had simply shook their shoulders at it, not caring about his dark past any more than Sora or Kairi seemed to do. They had stuck by him, had decided to keep on fighting by his side and to help him. It made him feel at ease and his heart felt a little less heavy with the thought of having been able to actually trust them with his secrets like this. Sora had told him time and again that he was a good person at heart and that this was the most important thing of all; that he had to trust himself to be a good guy, no matter what Ansem had made him do in the past. But his memories had lingered within him and he still had his doubts. The darkness was still there and he knew how easy it was to lose control over it. But knowing that even these two new friends of his dared to trust him even after learning about what he had done and what he was, gave him hope that maybe Sora was right after all. Perhaps he was actually the good guy that Sora saw in him. In any case, he was willing to prove it to himself and the world by fulfilling this seemingly never ending journey and save his friend. With Donatello and Hermione by his side, he felt like it could actually be done.

At nightfall they had still yet to reach the battle camp and Mickel lead them down to a small clearing where a hill proved to be a house; a moss green wooden door left a bit open. The place was left empty by its former inhabitants and Mickel informed them that it had once belonged to a small family of fauns who had fallen victim to the white witch.

"It's women like her and that god-awful Bellatrix that make me feel bad for being a witch myself," Hermione muttered, practically growling under her breath as she looked upon the destruction in the former family home. Furniture were turned over or broken, fabrics torn and cups and plates laid strewn on the floor, most of them shattered.

Riku picked up a fallen picture frame, turned it over and found the glass cracked. The frame held a family picture of sorts, sketched in coal. There was an elderly man with rather heavy horns on his head and an impressive beard covering his wide chest. He held his arm protectively around the shoulders of a young couple; a woman with petite horns and light hair billowing in thick waves down her shoulders, and a man with medium sized horns, short curly hair and a short beard. The man was clearly the older one's son and in his arms he in turn held a small baby, wrapped in a blanket. Anger rose in Riku's chest as he thought of how horribly this family's life had been changed.

"It's not your fault that others with your kind of talent can't find it in them to act good," Riku said in response to Hermione's comment. "Just because you have something in common, it doesn't mean you're like them."

Donatello smiled at this, putting a hand at his shoulder. "Wise words coming from someone who keeps blaming himself for something someone else did, don't you think?" he said in a low voice, giving him a wink of his eye as he passed him and gave Hermione a quick hug. "Riku's right you know," he said to the young witch. "You are way better than this woman and you're the proof that being a witch doesn't mean you have to be bad. Keep that in mind."

Riku looked at his friends, realizing once again that he had indeed been lucky to find them. And what Donatello had said was true. He still blamed himself for what had happened while he was under Maleficent's and Ansem's control, when in fact, he should remember that he had tried to fight it and that he in the end had saved his friends by doing so. Sure, he had been weak then and easy to control, but he wasn't the same person now as he had been back then. He was stronger now and he would never let himself be fooled like that again. He just had to remember that he had light as well as darkness inside of him and that the light part was the one in control. In fact, his light was stronger now than before, mainly thanks to his battle against the darkness.

"We can rest here in safety until the morning comes," Mickel said. "I'll keep the first watch and then we'll take shifts, just in case."

Hermione smiled. "Well, we don't really have to. I know a few spells that can keep us hidden so that we all may catch up on our sleep tonight," she said and went outside again, her wand in her hand. A moment later she was back, grinning . "Well, good night to you all, I'm going to find me a piece of bed to sleep in. My spells will keep us safe and we'll be warned if anyone breaks the barriers I put up.

Donatello yawned wide and stretched his limbs before sending Hermione a grateful smile. "Thanks a mill' for that, Hermione. I'm gonna sleep like a log tonight."

Mickel had already curled up by the fireplace where a blue flamed magic fire had been lit by Hermione before she went into one of the bedrooms. Donatello turned a couch back over on its right side and laid himself down in it, pulling his coat up over himself as a blanket and was sound asleep even before Riku had the time to react to it. Riku himself wandered silently through the big room for a moment, still not feeling ready to sleep just yet. His eyes fell on a small golden band of sorts, lying on one of the bookshelves. As he picked it up, he noticed it was in fact a small braid of golden hair, attached to a small golden flower of some sort, gleaming prettily in the dusk of the room. While holding the small braid, he felt a comforting warmth spread from it and he knew instantly that he had found yet another summon. How it had got here was a mystery, but whatever the reason for it to be lying left alone here for him to find it right now, Riku was glad that he had found it. Seeing how effective Lara's help had been in the previous battle today, he felt certain that each summon found was an invaluable ally. And this, _Drop of sunlight_-summon felt at least as powerful and important as any of the other two.

Putting the small braid among the other two summons in his pocket, Riku sat down in a rugged armchair, pulling an old blanket around his shoulders. His last thoughts as he fell asleep were of Kairi and Sora; their smiling faces welcoming him in a memory from his childhood. And as he slept, a soft smile stretched his lips.

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><p><em>Author notes: Yep. Narnia is the new world. The Stargate will have it's explanation in the next Narnia-related chapter, I promise. ;) Oh, the magic spell by Hermione here is completely made up by me, just like the previous one which got Donnie a cloak. Not a very good spell, name-wise, but very exact. I simply looked up the words in a latin dictionary. The first spell translates: "Create cloak", more or less. This second one translates roughly into "Create ongoing body heat". I can't remember the exact translation, but that's the over-all meaning. So no mysteries there. ;) Hope you all liked the chapter! Can you guess the summon?  Silverspegel _


	38. Part2: Chapt 22: Heart of the World

_**Author's note:** I've used the original Japanese names for the Sailor Soldiers here, mainly because those are the names I'm used to. Check Wikipedia if you get confused over who is who. I've done my best to describe them and make sure they are all recognized, but even the best can make mistakes. ;) Oh, and the park in this story is completely my own invention, nothing that can be seen in teh Sailor Moon series, as far as I know. /Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>Chapter 22:2: Heart of the world<strong>

"_From the light, comes darkness!_" (Anubis, _Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie – The pyramid of light_)

"So are you sure this is the spot?"

Ami, the blue-haired girl that Kairi and the others had met as Sailor Mercury the night before, nodded solemnly at the question. "There's no doubt about it, Kairi. All my calculations lead towards this place. I'm sorry I can't be more exact than this, but this area is where it should be. Do you sense anything?"

Kairi tried hard to find that slight tug in her heart that had lead her towards the heart of previous worlds, but couldn't sense it at all. Either the heart was very well concealed, or it wasn't here at all. Considering the soldier's confidence in her data, Kairi forced herself to think positive and lean towards the more optimistic of the alternatives. "I can't sense it, but that doesn't mean it isn't here," she said and took a look around. "We'll just have to start searching for it."

The group of Sailor Soldiers in their civil clothes, the two talking cats presented as Luna and Artemis, and Kairi and her two companions were standing in a forest area that according to Rei, the girl who also was Sailor Mars, was some sort of wild life preserve. Trees were growing high and pompous along the sides of a broad, well kept gravel path that lead through the park grounds that were positioned on the side of a low mountain hill. It was a beautiful setting, but something about the way shadows clung to the tree trunks gave Kairi a not so pleasant chill down her spine. The heartless thrived in shadowy areas like this.

"Do you think we'll have any trouble with the heartless showing in daylight?" Minako, also known as Sailor Venus, asked as she peered down towards the edges of the city.

"You can bet your cute little red ribbons on them showing up when we least expect it," Astrid said and weighed her axe in her hands, trying to decide whether or not she should keep it ready.

"What my less than tactful friend is trying to say," Hauru cut in as he noticed the golden haired Sailor soldier's irritated appearance ", is that the heartless are made of shadows, and although the night is optimal in its darkness, they have no trouble moving about in the light of the sun, so we better be on our watch."

The gathered Sailor soldiers seemed to appreciate Hauru's explanation and Astrid muttered something poisonous under her breath to him as she passed him, but Hauru only smiled.

"Alright, then," Haruka said, rolling her shoulders and pushing a hand through her short hair. She was dressed in jeans and a white shirt, looking rather masculine in compairance to her outfit as Sailor Uranus. "We better start looking then. Since it's a large area we probably should divide into groups to cover more ground in less time."

"It sounds like a good idea to me," Usagi said while thoughtfully gazing into the forest ahead, nervously stroking one of her long blonde pigtails. "But wouldn't it be better for us to keep together in case the heartless actually does show up?"

"It's easy for us to send a warning should it happen and we could agree on getting ourselves to the centre of the park if we get attacked, so that we easily can come to the attacked group's help," Michiru, or Sailor Neptune, put in, getting a grateful smile from Haruka. "The fountain at the centre of this place is a good rendezvous spot, easy enough to find for all of us. What do you say?"

"I guess it's ok," Usagi said slowly, still not fully convinced and looking rather scared at the thought of the large group splitting up. "But if we split up, then I'm going with Kairi and Makoto!" she wailed and grabbed a hold on the tall brown-haired girl that was Sailor Jupiter.

"Actually, Usagi, it would be smarter if Kairi and you were in separate groups, since you two are our strongest weapons against the heartless," Luna cut in, sounding like a tired and slightly annoyed mother, sighing heavily as Usagi made a sour face at the comment. The black cat, Kairi had learned, was in fact the one to have helped Usagi awaken her Soldier powers to begin with.

"Well, if Mamoru was here, I'd go with him, but since he's not, I want to at least feel a little safe," Usagi said with a pout.

"About that, where is Mamoru?" Rei asked while she tied her raven hair up in a loose ponytail to get it out of the way. "I thought he would show up last night. Have you two had a fight or something?"

Usagi put her tongue out at Rei and Kairi had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at the silly and childish gesture.

"No, we have _not_, thank you very much!" Usagi said grumpily. "But I don't know where he is. It doesn't feel right," she added and all of her childish manners were instantly swept away by a serious expression of worry in her big blue eyes. "If he'd gone away on a trip or something he would have told me."

"Who's Mamoru?" Hauru asked, his pale blue eyes quickly locking on to Kairi's before being directed towards Makoto to get an answer to his question. His quick look into Kairi's eyes had made it very clear to her what he was thinking about and Kairi hoped with all her heart that their mutual worry would not prove to be necessary. One look at Astrid told her that she was thinking the same thing.

"Oh, right, you haven't met him," Makoto reminded herself, not noticing the growing anxiety in Hauru's, Astrid's and Kairi's faces. "He's Usagi's boyfriend and, well, he usually helps out fighting together with us. He has magical powers of his own, although he's not one of the Soldiers."

"And he's missing?" Astrid asked in a low voice, not wanting Usagi to catch up on their half whispered conversation.

"Well, I haven't seen him for two days or so, and Usagi just said she couldn't get a hold of him today, but I'm sure there's nothing to worry about," Makoto explained, then took another look at the trio. "Why do you look so worried?"

"It could be just a coincidence, but if he really is missing, then we better hurry up and find that heart, or we might have to fight someone we don't want to fight," Kairi said cryptically and moved up to Usagi who was trying to make Rei agree to come in her group.

"Usagi, Luna is right in you and me being the best defense against the heartless, but I'm not willing to let you out of my sight, so we're teaming up," Kairi said and received a happy smile from the blonde.

"I _knew_ you'd be on my side in this! Thank you Kairi!" she beamed and gave Rei an angry sideways stare which the raven-haired girl completely ignored as she walked off to team with Ami.

"Hauru will team up with Makoto and Minako and Astrid will go with Rei and Ami. I suggest that Luna comes with us and Artemis…"

"I'm going with Haruka and Michiru, aren't I?" the white cat sighed sadly, throwing Minako a longing look.

"He doesn't have to come with us, we can take care of ourselves well enough," Haruka objected.

Kairi shrugged indifferently. "I just figured he would be a good messenger if you happen upon some heartless. He could quickly seek the rest of us out and get our attention to where you are."

After some minor fussing over the un-necessary concern for the duo, Michiru finally convinced her partner that taking the white cat along would be the best idea and they all split up, going into separate directions with the intention of finding the location of the world's heart as fast as possible. Each of the Sailor Soldiers got a small detecting device from Ami that was filled with the data necessary to find the energy they were looking for. The detector also worked as a form of one-way com, making it easy for them to quickly get in contact with each other once the location of the heart was found.

Despite it being her own idea to split up Hauru, Astrid and herself into three different groups, Kairi felt a little bad about going on without them with her. But dividing her own group was the best way to protect their new friends, seeing as how both Hauru and Astrid had more knowledge of fighting the heartless together with her, than did the Sailor Soldiers.

"So, uhm, just how are we to find the heart of the world?" Usagi asked after they'd walked in silence for a while.

Luna sighed. "Didn't you listen to Ami? She gave you a detector that will be able to pick up the energy."

"I _did_ listen, Luna," Usagi objected. "What I was wondering was what it looks like, so that we can be sure it's the right thing and not just a ball of energy tricking the detector."

Luna actually looked surprised at this statement and she stopped in her tracks to look up at the blonde. "That's actually a rather good question, Usagi…"

Kairi nodded. "It is. I don't know how accurate Ami's detectors will be, seeing as how she haven't had the real heart's energy to base her search data on. But I will know it when I see it. First off it won't look like a heart, but more like a keyhole. Secondly, the light inside of me, as well as you, Usagi, have a connection to the light of the heart, letting us sense it once we're close enough."

"Why me?" Usagi asked, slightly baffled at the information.

Kairi shrugged. "I have a way of sensing when people are connected to the world heart, letting me know just who to look for when I need help keeping the world safe. Let's just call it intuition."

Luna's red eyes focused on Kairi with a sharp suspicion in them letting Kairi know that the cat suspected that there was more to it than what she had said, but luckily enough Luna didn't say anything more about it as they went on.

When they arrived at a large circular fountain made of white stone, Kairi figured it to be the one that Michiru had spoken of. In the middle of the fountain pool stood a statue of a young woman in some sort of billowing clothes, the artist having been skillful enough in imitating the fall of the fabric around the woman's body to make it look more like real clothes than actual stone. The woman had her arms reaching up above her head, her hands open to the sky. It was from the hands that the water pooled out in thick pillars that bent downwards in two wide bows on each side of her.

"It's beautiful," Kairi said in a soft exhalation as she walked up to the fountain. As she got closer, Kairi could see that the statue had several signs worked into it, all of them in some way being connected to the moon.

"It's a statue of the goddess of the moon," Usagi said, reading off a plaque that was put up on the edge of the fountain pool. She then looked up at the statue, as if trying to find something she recognized in the face of the woman depicted, then turned to Luna. "She doesn't look very much like me, does she?"

Luna sighed and shook her small head. "No, and it doesn't take much to figure that out, Usagi. It's just a piece of art made by a human who wished to make something pretty."

"Why would it look like you in the first place?" Kairi asked, then suddenly all pieces of information seemed to fall in place. "Wait, your Soldier form is Sailor _Moon_," she said, smiling. "So you're actually getting your power from the moon, just like the so called goddess here would be, am I right?"

Luna grimaced. "Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but one could say you're mainly right I guess…"

Usagi simply nodded. "Yep. My powers comes from the moon, just like Rei gets her power from the planet Mars and Makoto from the planet Jupiter and so on."

Kairi struggled to understand the concept of different planets within the same world, and decided she would ask Hauru about it later. He seemed likely to know about those kinds of things.

She was going to ask Usagi more about the way she was connected to the moon, feeling that somehow this information was important, when she heard the detector Usagi held in her hand start beeping.

"Hey, I think the detector's found something…" Usagi said and looked at it to figure out just how to understand it.

That's when Kairi felt the first chill of darkness touch her conscience and she called the Soul Reaper into her hands within a second running up to Usagi and slashing down the Senshi Heartless that had materialized itself right behind her back. As it went up in black specks of darkness, Kairi turned on her heel, facing Usagi.

"Transform and call the others!" she ordered her and Usagi simply nodded and held up her transformation trigger high in the air.

"Moon Prism Power! Make up!" she called out with a steady voice and all at once she was enveloped in a white light, fading a second later to reveal Sailor Moon, jumping up at the edge of the fountain pool to avoid a strap of blue cloth lashing out at her from a Shadow Senshi having appeared some way off to her left while she transformed. She reached up to her forehead and lifted off her now glowing tiara, quickly sending it out like a boomerang at the heartless, hitting it straight on and making it explode into a dark mist. But the creature was reshaping itself already as the tiara went back to place itself at her forehead again.

Kairi sent her keyblade flying at another heartless, but as it returned to her, she realized she had to change her tactic and shifted keyblade, letting the Falling Star keyblade fill up with magic as soon as it appeared. The needles at its head started to glow, growing longer and translucent with the energy poured into them before she released the Rain of Stars attack, clearing the field of enemies in one swing.

Kairi, Sailor Moon and Luna looked warily around themselves, waiting for new heartless to suddenly appear and for the others to answer to the distress-signal Sailor Moon had sent out through the detector/communicator. Among the shadows Kairi spotted a figure moving towards them and at first she thought it was Hauru, but as he stepped into the light, she realized that she'd been mistaken.

"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon called out with a smile and jogged towards the man. He was dressed in a black suit with a billowing red foddered black cape at his shoulders, a black cylinder hat on his head and a white mask hiding his eyes. He walked slowly with calm motions, holding a long cane in one of his hands, swaying it softly with each step.

Kairi felt a pang of fear as she looked at the man, sensing the darkness oozing out of him.

"Sailor Moon! No! He's not who you think!" she called out, running even as she spoke the words, firing up the Strike Raid as she went. She released the attack as soon as she could and threw herself forward to push Sailor Moon out of the way of the attack she sensed coming from the man in the cape.

Sailor Moon yelped in surprise as Kairi crashed into her and they fell tumbling to the ground just in time for the thrown black rose to miss them both with only an inch to spare, boring its way into the fountain stone instead. At the same moment the keyblade came at the masked man, who only barely managed to get his cane up to block it, sending it crashing into a tree.

"What are you doing?" Sailor Moon asked as she huffing got herself up on her feet.

"He's not himself!" Kairi told her and called the lost keyblade back to her hand. "He's being controlled by a powerful heartless. I've seen it happen before."

"What? But he's…"

"Look out!" Kairi yelled out and got the Falling Star up just in time in front of Sailor Moon's face to block yet another black rose thrown at them.

Sailor Moon looked at the man in disbelief.

"Mamoru… no…" she mumbled, disregarding Kairi's warning and walked towards him without even being ready to defend herself from an attack.

The man only smiled viciously, an aura of darkness emitting from him as Sailor Moon walked closer.

Kairi ran up to stand in front of her friend, stopping her in her steps and taking the blow of the cane onto her own back as it came lashing out, intended to hit the Sailor Soldier. Kairi screamed out with pain as the cane hit her, the darkness stinging cold against her skin and the hard material bruising her back at the impact.

This seemed to wake Sailor Moon up from her daze of disbelief and with terror she looked Kairi in the eyes, realizing that her mistake had caused her friend the pain now showing in those dark blue orbs.

With an unexpected speed, the Sailor Soldier moved herself and Kairi out of the way of the next strike of the cane and as the heartless maneuvered the controlled body into yet another attack, it was cut short by a ball of flames thrown straight at him, forcing him to step back in order not to get burned, while Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury and Astrid rushed to Kairi's and Sailor Moon's side.

"Kairi! You're hurt!" Astrid noted anxiously as she reached her friend.

"It's not as bad as it might look, just a very lucky hit that pushed the air out of me. I just need to catch my breath," Kairi huffed with a strained voice, doubling over with her hands on her knees.

"Is that Tuxedo Mask?" Sailor Mars asked, a bit confused at what she saw as her fire died out to reveal the enemy. "What's gotten into him?"

"Exactly that," Kairi said, straightening herself out and calling forth the Soul Reaper. "A heartless has gotten into him, controlling him."

"What?" Sailor Mercury called out. "But, how? Why?"

"How I don't really know, but _why_ is easy," Astrid filled in as Kairi still tried to get her breathing right. "The heartless simply looked up a person whom you would have a hard time trying to fight, either because the person is superior in skill, or because it's a person you care about. It's a way of making it easier for them to win the battle and get to the one connected to the world heart."

"I see," Sailor Mars replied, fire building up in her hands. "They're cheating."

Sailor Mercury produced a beam of icy water that rapidly formed a wall of thick ice to prevent the masked man from leaping over the remaining flames and get closer.

"What do we do now then?" Sailor Mercury asked, panic in her voice. "I don't want to hurt him!"

Sailor Mars renewed the fire separating them from the enemy, but it was only a temporary protection and they all knew it.

"Sailor Moon, get a grip! We need to get that thing out of him before he hurts us!" Sailor Mars snapped and turned to face her friend. "I don't want to hurt him anymore than you do, believe me, but if it comes to it, I'd rather hurt him than see him hurt you! You got it?"

Sailor Moon blinked her teary eyes and nodded, trying to focus on the trouble at hand. "Kairi!" she called out and the keyblade wielder turned to look at her. "Is there any way for you to get rid of the heartless without hurting Mamoru?"

Kairi bit her lip in thought, then nodded. "I think so, yes. And I will try not to harm him, alright?"

As Sailor Moon nodded her acceptance of this answer, Kairi turned back her attention to the enemy on the other side of the flames.

"Rukia made it alright," Astrid pointed out as she noticed Kairi's worried features.

"Yeah, but Rukia was a soul-being only, Astrid. I don't know if a person with an actual body can survive this. I mean, I haven't done it before."

"Just do your best and we'll hold nothing against you," Sailor Mercury cut in and gave her a sad smile. "We have to protect Sailor Moon, that's our number one priority."

A shock of thunder and lightning suddenly erupted on the other side of the fading fire and melting wall of ice and soon Hauru half flew, half jumped over the flames, quickly followed by Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus.

"We came as quickly as we could," Hauru said as he landed softly next to Kairi. "I'm guessing that man is the one who was missing earlier?"

Kairi nodded and Astrid snorted. "Yeah and guess what: the heartless has him. Figures, huh?" the viking said sarcastically and took a new grip on her battle axe.

"Have you seen the crest?" Hauru asked Kairi, who shook her head in response.

"No, but if we find it we might be able to put a stop to him before he does any real damage."

"What are you talking about, what crest?" Sailor Venus asked, having overheard the conversation.

"Well," Kairi started, "it's a mark of sorts, looking much like a heart with a jagged bottom and a cross over it. Usually it glows with a purple and black shimmer and if I can break it, then the heartless is forced out of the host body."

"Then let's find that crest!" Sailor Jupiter said, having listened in on the explanation as well. "We'll keep him busy and you go up around him and try to get as close as you can, that way, he hopefully won't notice you before it's too late for him."

"Sounds like a good plan," Kairi admitted and soon the others were told about the plan as well.

But as the last remnants of the ice wall were shattered by a thrown rose, the group noticed that they weren't the only ones to have received allies. Around the masked man they now saw a number of Shadow Senshi heartless of varying colors.

"This sure makes it a bit harder," Astrid noted and swung her axe to cut the first attacker in half, yellow ribbons slashing in the empty air with yellow sparks going off as the heartless went down.

Hauru created a protective bubble around himself and Kairi as they moved to the side and got around the battlefield in a try to get behind their main target. An orange glowing gigantic orb slashed through the ground, causing a thunderous earthquake as it went and announced the arrival of their final two Sailor Soldiers. Sailor Neptune rushed up to Kairi and Hauru who were closest and got an update on the situation while Sailor Uranus moved in to aid Sailor Venus and Astrid who were surrounded by a number of green clad heartless.

"What's the matter?" Hauru asked as they moved on after having parted with Sailor Neptune.

"She said that they were kept away from here by a number of heartless, but none of you others were kept away like that, right?"

"No," Hauru confirmed. "So?"

"I'm getting this bad feeling that those heartless weren't supposed to just keep those two away, but to keep them in place. Remember the shadow creature back in Gin's world?"

Hauru nodded, grimacing at the memory.

"Well, that thing was searching for something it called 'shards' and mainly for the one it thought kept those shards."

Hauru's eyes widened as he realized what Kairi had come to realize when Sailor Neptune had told them about the incident.

"You think that the creature might want one of them?"

Kairi nodded in response, her eyes fixed on the masked man as they circled him.

"Yes, and this man here is a decoy as well as a subject to get to the keeper of this world's light and thus getting the heart of the world."

Grimacing at the idea, Hauru started to look around to try and spot a dark portal or something reminding him of the shadow creature. Doing this, he noticed how the heartless had started to swarm around Sailor Uranus. The others were getting their fair share of the battle too, but the tall short-haired blonde seemed to get a bit more attention from the enemies than the rest of them.

"I think you might be right in your guessing," he said in a low voice. "Let's try and take out this puppeteer quickly."

Kairi stared hard at the masked man, trying to spot the shimmer of the heartless crest she knew had to be somewhere on his body.

"Well, the crest isn't on his back, as far as I can see," she muttered disappointedly. "I don't get it, it should be there, because it's not at the front of him…"

Suddenly the wide cape billowed up and Kairi spotted the mark she'd been looking for, positioned right at the curve of his lower back. The cape had somehow been able to hide its presence from Kairi's scrutinizing eyes. Without further delay, Kairi shifted keyblade from the Soul Reaper to her original Destiny's Embrace, before filling the keyblade with all the light power she could muster, causing it to glow with a white shimmer.

"I sure hope this will work," she mumbled and stepped out of the protective bubble that had kept them safe until now and started running. Just as the man turned, somehow having noticed her moving towards him from behind, Kairi stomped off in a high jump, turning in the air so that her keyblade hit the ground before she did and set off the Light Blast only three steps away from her target. The man stumbled around, turning away from Kairi, blinded by the light and the heartless inside of him probably squirming with pain from the force of the impact, while Kairi wasted no time to pick up the keyblade and direct it straight at the spot where she knew the mark to be.

"Release!" she called out and a bright beam of light shot out to hit the crest spot on before the man could move away. With a short cut outcry, the man fell to his knees as a dark mist poured out from the crest and vanished.

At the same moment as Tuxedo Mask slumped down on the ground, Sailor Uranus screamed out in pain and Kairi turned, her heart panicking in her chest and her eyes widening with terror as she saw the short-haired soldier. Sailor Uranus' body was rigid, as if frozen in a movement and behind her stood the shadow creature Kairi remembered from Gin's world, reaching its hand into the young woman's back, where a dark light erupted. As it pulled the hand back, the creature held a pitch black shard of a jewel in its grasp.

"_It'sss mine, sssweet ssshard,"_ the creature hissed with a sharp-fanged grin and pushed Sailor Uranus in the back, causing her to fall forward. Before anyone else had the time to react, Sailor Neptune flung herself forward to catch her friend, only to have her dissolve in specks of light the moment she touched her.

The pain and sorrow in Sailor Neptune's eyes was horrible to see and Kairi felt like crying, remembering all to clearly a similar scene some years ago, when she had woke up on the floor of that strange room in Hollow Bastion, only to see Sora turn into nothing before her eyes.

But instead of crying, Kairi tightened her grip on the keyblade, changing it into the Soul Reaper and filling it with blood red energy. Simultaneously, Sailor Moon produced a scepter of pink, red and gold, and started an incantation that caused it to light up like a torch of glittering light, and Sailor Neptune rose to her feet with rage written in her face and gestures, her hands moving swiftly in a pattern calling forth her inner powers as a petrol shimmer enclosed her.

"SOUL-" Kairi started to call out, aiming the keyblade at the Shadow creature who now flinched as if it only now realized she was there.

"MOON SCEPTER – " Sailor Moon chanted, aiming her staff towards the creature as well. Something close to fear showed in the yellow eyes of the creature.

"DEEP-" came the outcry of Sailor Neptune, as she turned towards the creature who had taken away Sailor Uranus.

"-DEFENDER!" Kairi finished her calling of the attack, and blood red daggers shot out at the enemy.

"-ELIMINATION!" Sailor Moon released her attack in a blast of glittering light.

"-SUBMERGE!" With a throw of her hands towards the shadow creature, Sailor Neptune sent off the orb of pressing dark petrol oceanic energy with all her might, flashes of static electricity bristling around it as it rushed along the ground.

The target for those attacks had no way of escaping as it seemed, the powerful attacks racing towards it like piranhas smelling blood. But in the very last second, a dark portal opened beneath its feet and engulfed it, causing the attacks to crash into each other in a bombastic explosion both deafening and blinding.

Sailor Neptune fell to her knees in a frustrated outcry which turned into a violent sobbing and as soon as her sight was back, Kairi stumbled forward and lowered herself down on her own knees beside the soldier, putting an arm around her shoulders. Sailor Neptune looked up at her with tear filled eyes and Kairi nodded.

"I know it might sound awfully cliché and unbelievable," Kairi said as she let the older girl lean into her embrace, "but I actually know how you're feeling and you should cry for as long as you need to do it."

Sailor Moon had got herself over to Tuxedo Mask, and pulled him up to sit next to her as she talked to him in a hushed voice, shame and relief mixing in the man's eyes while he listened to her summary of what had happened.

Hauru got over to Kairi and Michiru, who had transformed back into her civilian self and seemed to be over crying for the moment.

"Any clue as to where to find the heart of the world yet?" he asked in a low voice when he reached them and got a declining shake of the head as a reply from Kairi.

"No, not really. Only…" she said, then seemed to come to think of something she had forgotten in the midst of fighting. "The statue!" she gasped and left Michiru's side.

Sailor Moon rose to her feet and jogged up to Kairi and went along with her as she walked towards the fountain. Kairi stopped at the edge of the basin, hesitating for a moment, then climbed into the water.

"You've found it, haven't you?" Sailor Moon said, but didn't wait for an answer before she went into the water herself. It reached them to their knees and was surprisingly soothing to the skin, neither freezing nor hot. Kairi switched keyblade from the Soul Reaper to the Destiny's Embrace, feeling the warmth of its power fill her from the hand and up as she lifted it to point at the statue of the moon goddess.

Sailor Moon stopped at her side and raised her scepter as well in the same manner as Kairi had lifted her keyblade and took Kairi's hand.

"We'll need both of our powers to open this door," she said, making Kairi a bit surprised by the serious tone in her voice. She almost sounded like a completely different person, older and wiser.

Kairi nodded, then in a silent communication to their weapons, the two princesses made two beams of light shoot out from the weapons and merge with each other; one a pale pink and the other pale blue, creating a single beam of gold hitting the chest of the statue in a soft splash as if it was water. Out from the shimmering pool of light created by this, a golden brimmed keyhole emerged and while Sailor Moon kept the stream of light from her scepter going, Kairi concentrated and twisted her keyblade away from the golden beam. White light now shot out from the tip of the blade and straight into the keyhole and as Kairi let the flow of energy die out, the soft sound of a lock being turned was heard and she stepped back to sit at the edge of the fountain, exhausted.

Sailor Moon turned back into Usagi and followed her example, while the rest of their group gathered behind their backs.

"What was that creature?" Usagi asked after a moment of silence.

"It took something from Haruka…" Michiru said, a sob heard in the background of her words.

"Who knows what it is," Astrid said with an angry huff. "It's on the bad guys' side and it's really starting to piss me off!"

"We've met it once before," Kairi said slowly. "I don't know exactly what it is or what it's doing, but it is somehow part heartless, part something else, and even though it's not the thing controlling the heartless, it is following direct orders from the one who is, that much I'm sure of. And it's searching for something that it calls 'shards'. My guess is that's what it pulled out from Sailor Uranus. A shard of something that its master wishes to have."

"And it seems like it knows about where to find Kairi's friends as well," Hauru filled in, causing Kairi to flinch. "At least it mentioned something like it last time we met."

Usagi nodded slowly and looked up as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her true love looked down at her with sad eyes, before he turned to Hauru.

"I truly wish there was something I could do to help you, after you saved me from that demon," Mamouru said. "But I'm guessing that the turning of that lock means that there will be no more visits from those shadows again?"

Hauru turned to Kairi, who gave him a confirming nod. "Yes," she said. "This world is now out of reach for the heartless and that creature both."

"Then at least let us give you this," Luna said, the black cat suddenly hopping up onto the stone lining of the fountain. Behind her Artemis followed, the white cat carrying something in his mouth which he let go in Kairi's hand as she held it out.

"It's a keychain," Kairi mumbled, looking it over in wonder. It was a ribbon of all the seven main colors of the Sailor Soldiers, each color reflecting the corresponding symbol of power for each soldier as she held it to the sunlight and at its end were a small, smooth crescent moon of gold.

"The Moon Staff blade contains the power of all the soldiers who gave their power to create this keychain for you," Luna said. "We worked on it last night, thinking it might be of some help to you."

Kairi nodded and held the keychain to her heart, letting it be absorbed by the inner light that was the keyblade.

"How come she's the only one getting presents all the time," Astrid muttered and Hauru chuckled at her grumpy face, causing the rest of the gathered to join in with the relieving laughter that only comes after relaxing from a bitter fight. Even Michiru pulled her lips into a sad smile.


	39. Part2: Chapt23: Elements of Harmony

**Chapter 23:2: Elements of harmony**

"_When you feel all alone, and a loyal friend is hard to find, you're caught in a one-way street, with the monsters in your head. When hopes and dreams are far away, and you feel like you can't face the day..._" (_Crash and burn_, Savage Garden)

"Is it over now?" Apple Jack asked, her eyes darting this way and that in an anxious manner as she walked up to them.

The battle had been a quick one, the heartless being small and short in numbers. With Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie aiding them, Sora and his companions had managed to get rid of the roughly pony-shaped shadows in a shorter time than expected.

Will shook her head. "Not until the heart of the world is sealed," she said, looking at Sora. "Right?"

Sora dismissed the keyblade and nodded. "The only way to defeat them is to lock away the heart of the world, before they find it and take it for them selves." He thought for a moment. "Apple Jack, during the battle now you said that the heartless looked like changelings. What are changelings, more exactly?"

Pinkie Pie jumped in between them with a grim face before Apple Jack had time to answer him.

"_They're spooky and evil and nasty_," she sang out in a chilling tune. "_They live off your love and they're ghastly. What do they look like, you wonder? Take a look in the mirror and you'll find the enemy yonder! Your friends may look friendly but you can't be sure, if they're your friends or the monsters I spoke of before!_"

Sora looked with big eyes on the pink pony as she slithered away keeping up the spooky tune as she sang on. "Is she…always like that?" he asked, turning to Apple Jack, who gave him a short and distinct nod in response.

"Yep. But she _is_ right. The changelings look very much like those heartless creatures, but when they find a victim, they take the appearance of that pony and feed off the energy created by the pony who loves the one it looks like. We've met them once before, in Canterlot. That time they were only defeated thanks to Twilight's brother and princess Cadence. Something about the light of love forcing them all away."

"Well, it certainly explains why the heartless would take their shape," Will cut in as she flew up close to them and landed in a slow trot. Sora nodded thoughtfully.

"I just hope they haven't copied their ability to shape-shift," he said with a shiver going up his spine at the thought. "Where does your friend live?" Sora asked Apple Jack and put a hoof on Luffy's tail to stop him from getting closer to a deserted apple sales-wagon.

"Ya' mean Twilight? At the library, a bit off to the north from here. Just let me check in on Rarity before we move on. We might need her help as well."

Said and done, the small group of ponies set off at a trot eastwards until they got to a rather exclusive looking fashion boutique.

"Rarity!" Pinkie Pie shouted out even before they had opened the door. The call was replied with a dramatic gasp of relief and as the group got inside, they found the boutique's owner huddled behind a big heap of glossy fabrics at the back of the room.

"Are you playing hide and seek?" Pinkie Pie asked and bounced up to her. "Who're you playing with?"

The white unicorn pony instantly got up on her hooves, her deep purple and well kept curly mane bouncing with the movement. "I most certainly am not! I was hiding from those _horrible_ monsters!" she said with an exaggerated tone of offence to her voice as she strode off to meet Apple Jack and the others.

"Rarity, we've gotta' move on fast now, Pinkie says Twilight's horn's been messing up and I think part of the mess outside is due to it," Apple Jack said in rushed words before Rarity had a chance to say anything more.

"But…Well, I guess I should…" Rarity mumbled hesitatingly, then got a bump at her rump from behind by Pinkie Pie.

"Twilight need us! Now get moving!" she said sternly and the mere surprise over the pink pony's serious expression caused Rarity to follow them all outside.

While they all got moving towards the library, Rarity got introduced to Sora and his friends and a short version of what had happened. They had barely got through the entire story when they reached the library and were met with a heart-sinking sight. The large oak tree that served as library and home to Twilight Sparkle had gone through a rather rough remodeling. Windows were shattered, the door burnt to a crisp and the leaves in the crown had turned black as night while the bark had the color of soot mixed out with purple stains. The whole place reeked of darkness and Sora felt all hairs in his pelt stand on end as they got closer.

"AJ! I've been looking for you guys!" a girl's voice was calling out from above and as they looked up, they spotted a sky blue pegasus with rainbow mane and tail, coming towards them in a deep dive of high speed. She landed in a skid before them, her face set in an expression of mixed worry and seriousness. "Twilight went berserk, teleporting all over the place a moment ago and now I can't find her anywhere at all. Fluttershy's on her way here too, so we better wait for her."

The pegasus was quickly introduced as Rainbow Dash and she in turn got a short introduction of Sora and his companions. They had barely gone through the names of each of them, when a pale yellow pegasus galloped straight towards their group with her eyes closed, almost crashing into them all before she stopped. She slowly opened one big blue eye and peeked out from underneath a thick gathering of pink mane that covered half her face. When she realized that the one she looked at wasn't someone she knew, she squealed with fear and crawled away from Sora, who felt slightly offended by it all.

"Hey, I don't look _that_ horrible, do I?" he asked Will, who shook her head, equally clueless to the yellow and pink pony's reactions.

"Fluttershy, it's alright! Sora's a friend, and Will and Luffy too. They're going to help us fight the heartless!" Pinkie Pie said with a soft, calming voice.

"H-h-heart-less?" Fluttershy stuttered.

"The shadow-thingies that look like changelings," Will explained briefly.

"Oh," Fluttershy replied and got up on her hooves. "I was just running away from them. There are a lot of them at the square…"

A sudden small explosion from inside of the library caught the group's attention and what Fluttershy had said fell out of their memory for a while as they all rushed towards the sound hoping to find Twilight Sparkle. But as they got inside, the explosion proved to have been the result of a small, violet and green baby dragon having bumped down a large pile of books onto a number of fragile objects of which the remains were spread out over the floor.

"And here you say _my_ room is messy," Apple Bloom commented to Apple Jack.

Rarity practically beamed as she spotted the purple and green dragon as he wobbled away from the mess. "Spikey!" she called out and rushed forth, grabbing a hold of the dragon and gave him a tight hug. "I was _so_ worried!"

The dragon turned slightly red at the cheeks by the close embrace and stuttered out what sounded like a denial of him ever being in danger, before Rarity finally released him from her grip.

"Spike, what happened to Twilight, and please, take the longer version, because Pinkie's short one wasn't too informative," Apple Jack said once the dragon was free to speak.

"Well," he said, thinking for a moment," when we got up this morning all was normal. But then Twilight got this weird feeling of something dangerous being about to happen and started to check up on foretold happenings in the books here. Then she said her horn started itching and things just went downhill from there. She had no way of controlling the magic and decided to try and teleport away from Ponyville until she was back to normal, but the teleporting wouldn't work either. Then somehow she finally made a teleporting that seems to have worked. I was sort of knocked out for a moment and only came to just now."

While the dragon had told his story, Will and Luffy had started to take a look around in the demolished library. Flying up to look at the top shelves, Will spotted a rather thick and large book lying open at a pedestal at the upper floor. Before she got over to it, Luffy stretched out and beat her to it, having seen her look at the book.

"Hey, do you guys have any idea what this stuff is about?" he called out to the others left on the entrance floor. All of the others, apart from Rainbow Dash who flew, started to climb the stairs to get to where Luffy was.

"Hey, that's the…" Apple Jack started, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

"_The Elements of Harmony_!" she said enthusiastically and landed in front of the pedestal.

The book did indeed contain something else than text. In it was a hollow space in which lay five jewel-adorned gold necklaces.

"The elements of harmony?" Will asked, a bit confused.

"Crystals of infinite light power that can only be used by the ponies who have the personality to fit with each element. And they only work when all six of them are together," Apple Jack explained.

"Six?" Sora asked and took another look at the necklaces. "There are only five here."

Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie gasped all at once.

"Oh no," Fluttershy uttered, her ears hanging.

"What?" Luffy asked, a bit behind on what was happening.

"Twilight's tiara is missing," Rarity said after taking a look into the book. "You don't suppose…"

"But why would she take it? It can't be used without our and the other crystals' help," Rainbow Dash pointed out.

A rumble of thunder outside broke through the walls and made the floor under their hooves shake.

"I think we'll find out soon enough," Sora said and took a leap over the railing to the stairs, landing in a roll on the lower floor and as he rushed to the door the Demon Fang flashed into existence in his mouth.

Will and Luffy followed suit; Will took flight, charging up her horn with magic and Luffy stretched his limbs out to reach the lower floor before he took a step out and snapped back to normal size just as he started running.

"Take the elements and come with us!" Will called out to the other ponies who stood gaping at the act of their new friends. "I think we're going to need them!"

They weren't too slow to get the message, and a short moment later, the five friends followed Sora, Will and Luffy out, leaving Apple Bloom and Spike inside to keep out of the fight.

Outside, the formerly desolate area before the library was filled with motion. But no ponies were in sight. Instead, there were the Changeling Heartless and something that looked very much to be the original changelings, eyes blue instead of yellow.

"I'm guessing those blue-eyed ones are the real deal," Sora said grumpily and got a nod from each of the others in reply. "Perfect. We'll just have to deal with them as best as we can then."

Without any further ado, Sora charged against the horde of attackers and his friends followed. The heartless went down easily enough to begin with, but the changelings were a different matter. At first it was hard to tell the real ponies from the changelings, and as he found out while slashing up another false friend, the heartless had caught up on the shape-shift ability. "The buggers are fast learners alright," he muttered as he went on.

The trouble of not knowing who to aim at caused him a number of bruises and cuts, since he stayed his blade and hesitated before each new face. But as he closed his eyes, he noticed that the real deal, his friends, had a spark of light clinging to them which he could sense through the keyblade, if he only kept his focus up. Knowing who was real and not proved to be a much needed aid in the fight. But the numbers alone were starting to wear both him and the others down.

"We sure could use some help here," Rainbow Dash huffed as she paused after having crashed down upon a group of changelings and heartless alike. Sora slashed the heartless into oblivion and gave the idea a thought.

"Then I best get us some, right?" he said, a smile starting to spread on his lips. "I think I know someone who could help."

Rainbow Dash only looked at him, wondering if he'd got his head bumped a little too hard to be saying something like that. But Sora ignored her weird look and closed his eyes for concentration, searching inside the light connected to his keyblade and found the one he'd been looking for. He hadn't even thought of the summons before Dash had mentioned needing help and now that he felt the presence of the soul inside the summon he'd picked, he felt rather stupid for not having done so sooner.

The Demon Fang glowed with energy as he opened his eyes and he rotated it once, creating a circle of light in the air before him.

"Give me strength… _Violet!_" he called out the name with sudden certainty and out flashed a violet light, from which appeared a human girl seemingly about 15 years of age with a slim body and raven black hair. She was wearing a black mask before her eyes and had a skin-tight suit of red and black covering most of her body. Without even waiting for instructions, she somehow produced a glass-like force-field which enveloped itself around the enemies before them and closed up into a giant orb. By steering the orb in different directions she managed to gather up even more of the enemies as the trap rolled over them and swallowed them up in the process. Once it was full, Violet squeezed her hands together, causing the orb to shrink and press the heartless and changelings alike into nothing but smoke and dust. As the few who remained came towards Sora, Violet threw up another force-field around the two of them, making Sora un-touchable, but in the same time, he could move about and slay any one of the attackers as he came across them.

Just as he thought it all to be over Sora turned to Violet to give her his thanks, when she put up a hushing finger before her lips, put a hand on his back and in the wink of an eye, they were both invisible. Sora was about to ask her what she was doing, but got a hushing sound as a warning and kept his mouth shut, feeling awfully strange about not being able to see himself.

"Hey, who was that girl?" Luffy asked and looked around them. "She totally cleaned this place up…" he added in a low whistle.

"Where did Sora go?" Will asked as she landed on the ground, a worried look in her eye.

"He became invisible!" Pinkie Pie informed her and bounced on the spot, as eager as ever. "I didn't know he could do that! I thought only unicorn ponies could do magic! Is he a unicorn in disguise? Is he?"

"No," Will replied, slightly annoyed and grimaced at Pinkie Pie's disappointed expression at this information.

"I see you've overpowered my changelings yet again," a female voice suddenly boomed out and all of the remaining ponies turned their heads to look in the direction of the voice. Before them landed a black pony on long legs filled with holes. She had a long, crooked horn in her forehead and long see-through insect wings at her back. Her mane and tail, long and thin, nearly glowed blue against her dark pelt and with poisonous green eyes she stared at the gathered with a look of distaste.

"Queen Chrysalis!" Rarity burst out in horror, gasping at the sight and Fluttershy instantly cowered, rushing to get behind Apple Jack.

"I'm impressed," Chrysalis snickered as she walked closer to them on her hole-infested legs. "I didn't think you'd manage to do this kind of damage even if you were all gathered, and this time you were even one group member short."

Rainbow Dash growled and rushed to the air. "Where's Twilight? You've done something to her, haven't you?"

Chrysalis made big eyes at the accusation, but snickered none the less. "Oh, my, somepony's in a hurry. Your dear friend's just fine. She simply understood the good in re-arranging her previous loyalties, didn't you my dear?"

From behind the monstrous queen stepped out a small, pale purple unicorn pony with indigo mane and tail cut through with stripes of pink and violet. Her eyes were blank, covered by a yellow shine that sent shivers through both Sora's, Will's and Luffy's bodies. The mark on her flank showed a blackened four-spike star surrounded with dark purple flames, flames that were spreading over her body as she moved forward.

"Yes, my queen, I did indeed," Twilight Sparkle replied with a wicked grin on her lips, her voice sounding distorted as it came out her mouth. A spark flared at the top of her horn, and a golden tiara showed above her forehead, but the moment it was placed upon her head, it turned jet-black, with toxic green gem-stones. "There are so many priveledges in just giving in to the shadows and the darkness," she added in a purring voice as the flames from her cutie-mark spread over her face and started to glow. Suddenly Twilight was growing, going from fillie to mare, her legs getting long and slender, her horn going from short and chubby to long and pointed and her mane and tail growing long and full. As the glow died out, her body was completely changed, coloured in a deep dark purple now and fully grown. Her gathered friends stared in horror and awe at her transformation.

"No way that's Twilight!" Rainbow Dash argued and made a go to dive at the pony claiming to be her friend.

Twilight Sparkle only flashed with her horn in Dash's direction, and the pegasus was stopped in the air, not able to move a muscle. "If I wasn't Twilight, and I _am_, then I wouldn't have stopped you just now. I would have _killed_ you. Smashed you like a bug. But if you're still not convinced, then just call me _Nightfall_, for that will be my name now."

Chrysalis was grinning like a wolf on a hunt, with her eyes aglow with pleasure at seeing her enemies be crushed by what they saw before them. Nightfall, formerly known as Twilight, smirked as well. "It was _my _magic that brought the heartless here and_ I'm_ the one controlling them. So I give you one chance and one chance only; join me and my queen, or fall before the shadows of Nightfall!"

"We'll never give in to the darkness, no matter what ya' call it!" Apple Jack said promptly, putting her hooves down firmly and the others nodded their heads in agreement."And we _will_ save ya', Twilight!"

Will took her chance to act while Nightfall was distracted and sent off a charge of magic at Rainbow Dash. A second later, the pegasus fell to the ground, freed of the spell that had kept her frozen in her movement. As she noticed this, Nightfall sent off a beam of green magic light towards Will, and missed her with only a hair as she teleported to another position, galloping around the group of ponies as they got to Rainbow Dash's side.

While this was happening, Sora and Violet had in their invisibility moved to get behind Chrysalis and Nightfall, and standing behind them, Sora noticed how the mark on Nightfall's darkened flank had a small heartless crest inside of the star. It would be hard to hit, but he would have to try, or else the pony would be completely taken over within minutes, as far as he could tell by the degree of transformation she'd gone through already. He readied the keyblade, charging it with power, and as soon as he was in position, Violet took her hand off his flank and lifted the invisibility from them both.

Surprised to find their enemy so close up, neither Nightfall, nor Chrysalis, had a chance to avert the attack as Sora jabbed the Demon Fang into the small crest upon Twilight's flank. Chrysalis was about to make a move, firing off her magic at Sora, but in the very last moment Violet managed to throw up a shield before him, causing the magic to bounce right back at the changeling queen, who screeched out with pain as the spell hit her in the face.

"_RELEASE!"_ Sora finished his attack and could hear the seal crack. He saw the heartless dash out from the broken crest the very instant that Nightfall started to shrink and turn back into Twilight Sparkle, falling to the ground unconsious from exhaustion.

"Stop right there!" Sora called out and galloped after the escaping heartless who somehow managed to reshape it self even after having lost its host. It rushed forward and turned sharply, making it hard for Sora to catch up to it. Just as it was about to pounce upon Pinkie Pie while she was getting herself over to Twilight Sparkle's slumped body, Luffy's hooves shot out to push it aside, giving Sora just enough time to get to the weakened Parasitic Heartless and with a forceful blow of his keyblade, he vanquished it.

A rather dizzy but quickly revived Chrysalis shook her head violently and got rid of her momentary confusion caused by the rebounding spell, and when she saw what had happened, she roared in disappointment and anger, calling forth a pack of changelings. "I will _not_ let this power slip from my hooves! The darkness and the shadows _will_ obey me!" she called out, and soon heartless as well started to rise from the ground.

Sora turned to see Violet finally fading out, waving a hand at him with a sad look in her big eyes at the knowledge of her not being able to help him further. He sent her a thankful thought for her incomparable help and then gathered his friends around Twilight's still unconscious self.

"We have to find a way to get to Chrysalis!" he said as he charged up the Demon Fang with new energy. "If we beat her, we could take out all of the other ones as well."

"I see what you mean, but there is one problem," Rarity said and threw a worried look towards Twilight. "Without Twilight, we can't get the elements of harmony to work and those are the only force we know of to be powerful enough to beat her for good."

"Then I guess we'll have to work out a new way of making them work," Sora said, grinding his teeth against the handle of the keyblade, sending even more energy into it as he charged up an attack that he felt to be powerful enough to face the changeling queen. "I'll see if I can buy us some time and you see to that you get Twilight out of here! Will, Luffy! Help them move Twilight somewhere safer and try to work out a way to make the elements of harmony work without her."

"O-Ok, but what about you…" Will objected.

"I'll be _fine_! Now MOVE!" Sora growled as he put in the last bit of strength he could spare into the charging attack. He didn't wait for an answer, but moved forward in a gallop, dodging the heartless and changelings diving at him and missing with only a tight margin.

_Come on! Attack me!_ Sora thought, wanting Chrysalis to aim a beam of magic his way and as he drew nearer, she noticed his charge towards her and saw the threat.

"You foolish little foal! Do you really think you can take me on all alone?" she roared and turned her horn towards him.

"I'm _never_ alone!" Sora objected as he got into place, dodging yet another changeling. He felt a small surge of extra power grow in his heart at those words and let it feed the powering of his keyblade. "My friends are my strength! And I'll do _anything _to help them."

Chrysalis laughed, a haughty and self-certain laughter meant to cause fear amongst her opponents.

"What pitiful sentiments you have little one! Your friends aren't here to help you now, are they? I'll show you _true_ power!" She boasted, rising up on her hind legs as swirls of shadow gathered around her and spiraled up alongside her body and twirling into her horn, bristling with dark power as her mane fluttered dramatically from her neck in an invisible wind created by the power gathering around her. "Be gone!" she called out and unleashed a beam of black magick sparkling with poisonous green, heading straight for Sora.

_It's now or never,_ he thought and braced himself, swinging the Demon Fang keyblade in a semi-circle before himself. "**_BACKLASH WAVE!_**" he called out, releasing the attack as he swung the blade. A wave of energy rushed out from the blade, creating a set of whirlwinds that met up with the attacking magic, bashed against it and then, like a sharp blade it cleaved the beam of black and green in two, forcing the magic to turn around and push its way back to the one releasing it. The colliding powers made the ground shake and crumble, but Sora stood fast, keeping up the flow of magic in the attack as it pushed forth, forcing Chrysalis to back up until she could no longer hold it back.

With a scream she was hit by her own magic amplified ten times by Sora's attack. She fell to the ground in cramps and twitches, her body protesting against the spell she herself had cast to get rid of Sora.

Sora was panting, weak and shaking from the outlet of magic, and let the Demon Fang disappear to releave himself of its weight as he stumbled back towards the library, where he figured his friends had taken cover. "Now who's pitiful?" he mumbled as he passed Chrysalis, writhing with pain.

"You…will… _PAY_ for this!" the changeling queen growled, but Sora ignored her. His head was spinning from the loss of energy and he knew he had to get out of there soon, or the dark queen would be able to get to him as soon as she managed to counter her spell well enough to get free from it.

Will and Luffy rushed to his side, just as his legs gave in and he slumped down on the floor, exhausted, but not yet out for the counting.

"I'll be fine. I just need to rest for a bit," he mumbled while the two helped him get further inside.

"That was one heck of a blast there buddy," Luffy said, admiration in his eyes as he looked at his friend. "But you might consider waiting for a while before you do that thing again, right?"

Sora only nodded in response, too tired to speak.

"But I can't believe she's actually still alive!" Will said, fear in her voice.

"It's probably because of her magic," an unsteady voice said and they all turned to Twilight Sparkle, who'd finally woken up and was now looking at Will. "His attack turned her own magic against her, but you could say she's sort of immune to it. It's only due to the light in his attack that she even budged when she was hit by it."

"Then we have to make the elements work and fast!" Will concluded and walked up to Twilight. "Can you do it?"

Twilight tried to stand up, but fell to the floor almost before she'd lifted herself up and sighed apologetically.

"I, I don't think I have the energy needed for it. But…"

"What do you mean 'but'?" Rainbow Dash asked with panic close in her voice. "Without you it won't work!"

Twilight shook her head. "Not neccessarily. The elements of harmony are designed to work only if worn by somepony with the qualified abileties. AJ has honesty, Fluttershy has kindness, Pinkie has laughter, Rarity has generosity and Dash has loyalty. I represent magic, but I'm not the only one here able to do that, don't you see?"

All of them suddenly stared at Will, and she gulped at the realization of what Twilight was saying.

"_Me_? But I don't know anything about it!" she objected, but Twilight only nodded.

"You don't have to, just be yourself and let the magic flow through you. The elements will do the rest."

The golden tiara from before, holding the element of magic was suddenly placed upon Will's head by Rarity's magic.

"Err, everypony, Chrysalis is up on her hooves again!" Spike called from the doorpost, having stood on guard. He ran back with panic written in his face as he looked from one pony to the other. "Do you really think this will work?" he asked.

Twilight nodded and Apple Jack stepped forward, giving him a rub at his head with one of her hooves. "Of course it will! It'll be done in a jiffy and we'll be celebrating our victory at Sweet Apple Acres by nightfall," the orange pony said with a steady voice.

Calmed by his friend's certainty, Spike went to sit by Twilight, joined by Apple Bloom. "Well, if you say so. Just hurry back and be careful, you hear?"

Apple Jack nodded and together with the others she walked out of the library, Will at the head of the group, nervous like never before as they went to face off against the changeling queen.

"_Where is he_? Where's that insolent foal of a colt who dared do this to me?" Chrysalis roared as she spotted the group of ponies coming at her. "Is he too afraid to face me a second time? Sending his friends to take me on instead? _Hah_!"

Will felt a rising anger in her chest at the insult of her friend and with all of her uncertainty blown away, she stood straight before the fearsome mare and stared her in the eyes.

"Sora's no weakling, and neither are we, so don't take us lightly!" she said and felt a strong energy flow through her.

"Never," Apple Jack said, her gemstone glowing in her necklace.

"Ever," Fluttershy filled in, her stone glowing in turn.

"Underestimate," Rarity stepped in, her element glowing in deep purple.

"The power," Rainbow dash said as she took flight with the red bolt in her necklace glowing.

"Of friendship!" Pinkie Pie added sincerely and put her hooves down firmly as her element shone brightly from the necklace.

Chrysalis finally understood what was happening and started to move away, but was too late as the magic snapped on in Will and connected the six of them, creating a powerful beam of rainbow-colored light that crashed into the changeling queen with a force that sent her flying into a wall, screaming out her agony as the light filled her up.

"NO! He promised it wouldn't be this way! _He_ promised!" she squealed as light enveloped her and suddenly there was nothing left, but a dark gemstone embedded into the rock of the wall she'd been pressed up against.

Will walked up to it, used her magic to carve out the stone that kept Chrysalis prisoner and passed it over to Rarity.

"I trust you to know a secure place to put this," Will said and Rarity nodded.

"I'll see to that it gets to princess Celestia as soon as possible. She'll know what to do with it."

They all spent the night together in the library. In the morning after, when they were putting back books in the shelves, Sora noticed a shimmer deep in at the back of one of the shelves and as he looked closer, he realized it was in fact a keyhole. The Kingdom Key flashed into his grip and with a swift move the lock was turned and the heart of the world saved, for now.

"We have to get moving now," Sora explained to Twilight and the others an hour later, after having put the last things back together in the library. "There are other places that need our help with the heartless and Ponyville is safe now."

"Hey, before you go," Rarity said, fussing about in a saddle bag she'd brought over from her boutique in order to help Twilight stitch up a few torn fabrics. "I found this jewel in my jewelry-box this morning and I couldn't help but think it belonged to you."

She pulled out a rainbow-shimmering ribbon and at its end dangled a perfectly shaped round heart, seemingly made of crystal. As the sunlight shining in through the windows hit the stone, it was washed with all the colors of the elements of harmony.

Sora took the jewel from Rarity and he instantly knew undoubtebly what it was. A keychain. "Thank you," he said and in a flash of light the keychain joined with the inner light that his keyblade was a part of. "I will keep it like a treasure."

When they had said farewell to their new friends and galloped away a good long stretch of road to get out of sight from the town, they stopped and stepped in among a gathering of trees. Will ripped up a fold with the Heart of Kandrakar and in an instant all three of them were back to their normal selves.

"Well, shall we go?" Will asked, seeing Sora's suddenly dark face as a bad sign. "Perhaps we should get back to Montessor and re-fill our stocks of potions and food and such before we move on," she suggested.

But Sora shook his head, ignoring Luffy's eager nodding to Will's idea.

"No, we should just keep moving ahead. We've got enough in our bags and pockets to manage another world-visit. Let's get this over with."

And so they all stepped through the opening together and left Equestria behind.


	40. Part2: Chapt24a: Unexpected Gifts

_**Author's notes:**__ This chapter was meant to be one whole chapter together with the following, but I realized it became way too long to be a pleasant read on the screen, so I chopped it up in two parts, hence the "24a" of the titling. /Silverspegel_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 24a:2: Unexpected gifts<strong>

_"Don't you come here and say, I didn't warn you, about the way your world can alter. /…/And the lions roar, the lions roar./.../ and I never really knew, what to do." (The lion's roar_ by First Aid Kit)

The night in the wrecked fauns' home had been eventless and the group woke to a new day being surprisingly well rested. Hermione's traps had not gone off even once during the night and as they took a look outside, the world laid still and snowy before them.

"Looks like they've lost us for the moment," Riku said and stretched himself to his full length, yawning as he felt the last remnants of sleepyness leave him.

"Oh, you didn't just say that!" Donatello said with a muttering as he tightened his bandana. "If there's one thing I've learned about prolonged battles and being followed by the enemy, it is that at the very moment you relax and think you're safe, the enemies will most definetely be a whole lot closer than you think. It's a jinx if anything ever is to say it out loud like that."

Hermione lifted an eyebrow at the turtle's anxious expression and snorted.

"Nothing's a jinx unless you yourself believe it to be so or someone actually casts it upon you. It's nothing but plain humbug to believe things like that you know."

Donatello shrugged. "Well, I'm just saying you can never be too careful."

"I am with the shadow warrior on this," Mickel said, presenting a wide and toothy yawn as he stretched for a moment. "When it comes to the White Witch, one must always expect the unexpected. Always be on guard." The fox suddenly sniffed in the air and got tense. "I do believe we're getting company."

The trio fell silent, listening intently in the silence of the forest surrounding them. And sure enough, they could hear the sound of jinglebells come closer in a frightening speed.

"Sounds like a sleigh," Hermione whispered, trying hard to grasp what she thought she was hearing.

"The only one with a sleigh in Narnina these days is the White Witch!" Mickel gasped, his fur instantly standing on end. "We have to hide or we're done for!"

They quickly returned into the relative safety of the fauns' house, closing the door behind them the very moment they could hear the bells' jingle slow and come to a halt not far from where they had been standing only moments earlier.

"I think our position's been revealed," Donatello whispered, gritting his teeth and taking out his bo staff to get ready for battle. Hermione brought out her wand from the pocket in her robes and Riku kept the link to his keyblade active, not calling the weapon forth in fear of giving them all away by the flash of light with which it always emerged.

"I will go first," Mickel whispered. "I might be able to fool her as I've done so before. If not, then you have to do your best to flee her and get to Aslan. The trees will show the way once you leave this part of the forest."

"Wait, what?" Hermione asked, but the fox silently slipped out of the door without giving her an answer to the unpronounced question. "Did he really say the _trees_?" she mimed to Riku and he nodded, feeling just as confused as she seemed to be.

Suddenly they heard Mickel rush back towards them and they all got ready to fight, but as he turned up in the doorway, they realized he didn't seem the least afraid or harmed. In fact, he was smiling. As much as a fox is able to smile, anyway.

"Put away your weapons, friends! Joy is to be expected now! We have a most wanted guest waiting for us! Come!"

Curious and a little confused, the trio did as they were told and went outside. As they turned to look at where Mickel went, they all gaped in wonder. Before them stood a large, old fashioned sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer with shimmering fur and glittering antlers. And next to the sleigh stood a tall, merry looking man with a long silky white beard curling over the well used brown fur coat he was wearing.

Riku didn't know what to say. He _knew_ in some strange way, deep within himself that the man he was looking at was the very personation of the giving and caring spirit that had grown to be a part of the Christmas celebration through-out time. Even though he looked nothing like the picture he'd always had of the man, there was no doubt that the person in front of them was indeed the one called Santa Claus.

"No way," Hermione whispered and Donatello blinked in a silent agreement to her surprised exclamation.

"Do you know what this means?" Mickel said, his tail wagging happily back and forth. "Christmas arriving means that time as started to move again! The White Witch's spell is breaking! Spring will come and the never ending winter will finally come to an end! By Aslan these are great news!"

The white bearded man chuckled warmly at the fox's eagerness, a clucking and heartwarming sound that helped them all relax a little. "Well, don't just stand there my dear youngsters," he said, eyes twinkling. "I have other deliveries to make as well you know. And I've been horribly delayed by this chilling spell too."

"Other… deliveries…?" Riku asked, still a bit dazed by the whole experience.

"Presents, of course!" the man laughed, heaving himself over the side of the sleigh and pulled out a large leather bag of sorts, which he put down on the snowy ground before him. He opened the bag and bent down to reach deep into it, rummaging about in it for a while before pulling out a long, perfectly smooth obsidian staff of some strange metal, decorated with golden details indicating that it could shrink and grow in legnth. It gleamed in the sunlight, shifting in a shade of deep purple.

"Donatello, I belive this one is for you. And may you use it well, defending your dear ones and fighting off the darkness." He threw the staff in Donatello's direction and as the turtle reacted and stretched his arm up to catch it, the staff seemed to be drawn to his hand as if it was magnetic. He stared at it in awe for a moment, then looked up at the bearded man with honest gratefulness in his eyes.

"I will use it to the best of my ability, I swear it," he said and received a pleased smile from the man.

"And this one," the giftbringer continued as he pulled out yet another object from the bag, "is most certainly for you, Hermione Granger. Use it well and know that what you seek will be found again, as long as you do not give up hope."

He walked up to her and handed her a bundle of soft fabric, shimmering as it was moved about in her hands. She unfolded it with an intense expression of emotion in her face and as she held it up before her, they could all see it was a large cloak of some sort, with a pattern of moons, suns and stars on the silky fabric.

"But… this is… how did you…?" she stuttered incoherently for a moment as she stared at the cloak, not quite believing what it was she was seeing. "This is Harry's cloak…" she finally managed to say, tears choking in her throat and running down her cheeks. "His invisibility cloak."

The man nodded. "It's a special gift indeed and it was hard to track down, with things being as they are. But I reckon you will know what to do with it and that when the time comes, it will be put to use in the best of ways."

Hermione could do nothing but nod, her tears running freely now and she slowly pressed the cloak to her chest. "Thank you," she whispered into the fabric.

"And last, but not least," the bearded man said and bent down to dig through the bag once more, "to you Riku, wielder of the keyblade, master of light and darkness alike, there is not much I can give to help on your quest, but I hope that this will serve you well along with the ensurement that your friends are out there still, searching for you just as intently as you are searching for them."

A shiver went through Riku's body at those words and he stared at the man with a million questions in his mind, but only one word slipped through to his lips.

"Sora?"

The man hesitated for a second, then nodded slowly, his eyes sad.

"Yes, he is looking as well. But I'm afraid he is loosing his way. Darkness is hard to bear for someone who can not keep it in check. I pray you find him soon and lead him back to the light."

Riku felt it as if he'd gotten a bucket of icy water thrown into his face. Sora? Losing his light? That couldn't be right. Sora _was_ the light. But parts of his memory came to the surface, showing him what he had wanted to forget. Sora had been weakened in his heart's light even before this battle had begun. And so now the darkness was eating away at him.

"Do not fear, Riku," the man suddenly said, interrupting him in his depressive thought pattern. "As long as he has your light to guide him, he will be fine. Never stop hoping or believing. Here," he stretched out his hand to him and Riku took it, feeling warmth spread with a rapid speed from his hand throughout his body. And as the man pulled away his hand, a flash of light appeared and as it faded, Riku held a new keyblade in his hands.

"It is short, but powerful and don't be fooled by its light weight; it deals heavy blows and the more light you put into it, the stronger the hit will be and the longer your range will be as well. It will never harm the innocent, but cleanse the darkness from their hearts and wipe out the shadows crossing your path."

Riku inspected the keyblade with awe. It was beautiful in a way he couldn't quite put words to. The grip was wrapped in fine tanned leather straps, soft and smooth to the touch and allowing a firm hold that wouldn't hurt nor slip. At the junction of grip and blade there was a golden v-shaped decoration curling downwards at the ends. On top of it was a detailed chiseled golden lion's head with ruby eyes. From behind the upper part of the lion curls of gold flowed outwards for a bit. Behind the gold details a crimson set of handles stretched out in a downwards bow reaching down half the length of the grip. The crimson metal was also reaching up behind and above the lion's head, tipped with a gold brim connecting the grip with the blade. The blade itself gleamed in silver light and apart from it consisting in two thin parallel blades, it shaped itself like a sword at the top. The key head consisted of a stylized three-pegged crown, looking for some reason very much like that on Sora's favorite necklace, turned upside-down, facing a likewise lopsided crimson heart-shape. Down at the grip's bottom a crimson metal orb held a thick similiarly colored thread of silk in which a golden lion's head ideantical to the one at the junction of grip and blade dangled as a keychain.

"What do you call it?" he asked slowly, knowing the answer as soon as he'd asked the question.

"Magic Kingdom," Santa replied, the glitter back in his eyes.

"The air is getting warmer," Hermione noticed and looked around them in wonder. The snow covered landscape was slowly shifting into one of spring bloom and soon enough she finished the heat-spell she had used up until now to keep them from freezing in the winter that they had now left behind.

"It's Aslan," Mickel said. "Wherever he goes, the world will come alive and the hearts will be filled with light. For that is his power and his right. He is everything and yet nothing but himself."

Hermione lifted an eyebrow in confusion, trying to figure out what the fox meant.

"So are we getting close to him then?" Riku asked.

"Yes indeed," Mickel replied and took a leap to land upon a small rock at the side of their path. "The wind is telling me so. Can't you smell the summer just behind the corner?"

Riku looked at his companions and Hermione and Donatello both shrugged. What ever Mickel was smelling in the wind, none of the others sensed it. Suddenly Riku tensed, as his eyes fell upon a shape moving in behind his friends. It was a myriad of… flower petals? Unsure of what to do, he stared at the mass of pale pink petals as they moved about and re-ordered themselves to shape into what looked very much like a young woman.

Hermione and Donatello both had turned to look as well and all three of them now stared in awe at the strange thing.

"So, the dryads have awoken," Mickel said with a snort. "Don't stare too long at them or you'll find yourselves lost in the woods for sure."

"What… you mean they're enemies, then?" Hermione asked, being the first to tear her eyes away from the dancing petals.

"Oh, by Aslan, no. But they have a mind of their own and they find it to be a very neat prank to make people lose their way," Mickel grunted.

They all continued along the path they'd been walking on, followed by the clouds of flower petals for some stretch of the way, before the dryad made a whistling sound in the wind which sounded a bit like a high pitched giggle and rushed ahead through a clearing and onwards. As the others came to said clearing they saw a large camp of big tents in the old fashioned style of medieval warfare. The main colors on tent canvases and flags being red and gold, Hermione felt a jolt up her spine of recognition. Had it not been for the setting, the colorings and the lion insignias would have been enough to let her believe she was back at Hogwarts, looking at a gathering of Gryffindor supporters going to a Quidditch match. She shook her head hard and blinked away the tears threatening to break through in her eyes as her heart filled up with emotion.

As they got closer, they could also make out several creatures of varying appearances populating the camp in question. Hermione did her best not to stare at the centaurs that were looking both larger and fiercer than the ones she knew about from Hogwarts, while Donatello had trouble tearing his eyes away from a couple of fauns who appeared to be talking to a very large cheetah in armour. Riku, being rather accommodated with seing all kinds of strange creatures, weren't all that troubled by the sight as his friends, but as they entered the camp and the heads of all present turned to look at them, he got rather surprised by the mix of eyes and expressions facing him. There were mythical and magical creatures as well as ordinary animals in the crowd. That is, if you could call animals twice the usual size "ordinary".

"Sir Fox," said a particularly large and intimidating bear, stepping out in front of the group, "what is this that you're bringing us? And where have you been hiding?"

Mickel didn't seem to be the least afraid of the beast though and simply smiled wide, swishing his thick tail as he looked up at the bear.

"Bruto Bear my lord, I've been on a mission given to me by Aslan him self. My companions are to be brought to him and the children of Adam and Eve as soon as possible, so that they may speak with them."

The bear blinked, looked at Donatello, Hermione and Riku in turn, then back at the fox.

"Well then, I shall ease your passage through the camp, my friend," the bear rumbled and turned to walk ahead of them.

True enough, a lot of the camp inhabitants moved quickly out of the way of the bear as he came walking and when he growled slightly the few who dared look suspiciously at his followers quickly found something else to do. The bear lead them up to a large tent at the center of the camp. This tent had more gold than red on it and the fabric was heavily decorated with lion heads and suns.

Mickel went ahead of them and slunk inside the tent while Bruto stayed with Riku and the others outside. Soon Mickel appeared again, a wide smile in his face and with a new shine to his fur. Behind him followed a tall young boy with blond hair, dressed in a silver shining armour and carrying an exquisite sword in a hilt fastened to his hip with a decorated leather belt. Behind him followed a shorter boy with dark brown or black hair, eaqually dressed in armour. This one was followed by a tall blonde girl, carrying a bow and a quiver full of arrows and next to her walked a much shorter, dark haired girl seemingly only to be equipped with a dagger. But what really caught the group of friends' eyes, was what came out behind the fourth human.

A lion as big as a horse, his fur golden in the sunlight, with a thick mane of golden brown silken hair that seemed to flow in repetitive waves caused by an invisible wind. Each delicately lifted paw was as big as a human head, and despite his massive size and the fearsome muscles working underneath his skin, he made no sound nor caused any tremor in the ground as he moved. Riku found himself staring into the lion's large yellow eyes without being able to stop. He felt as if his soul was inspected and searched through by a being even larger and more impressive than the lion before him, a creature in whos presence he felt an awesome fear and great comfort simultaneously. After a second that seemed like an eternity, the lion broke the eyelock and Riku blinked.

_"If ever there was a god in the world, that lion has to be one,"_ Riku thought to himself, a shudder going through him as he tried to shake off the feeling of numbness that had somehow spread in his body during his eye contact with the golden creature.

"My lords, my ladies and Aslan," Mickel said and made a bow to each one of the young humans who had come out of the tent, then to the lion and lastly to Donatello, Hermione and Riku. " I have brought to you whom you asked for. Donatello, the shadow warrior, Hermione Granger, the good witch and Riku, the keywielder."

Riku felt an urge to bow, and as he saw Donatello and Hermione do the same, he too followed this urge. As he raised his head once more, the great lion surprised him by lowering his head to them in turn.

"It is a great honour to have you all gathered here among us," Aslan said with a deep, booming voice. "Although you must by now wonder at why you are here, am I right?"

Riku nodded. "We understood from Mickel here that you needed our help with somewhat, and since you knew all about where to find us and when, even knew our names, I'm guessing you know what we came here to do," he said with a steady voice, his eyes set on the eyes of the great lion.

"Yes," came the simple answer. "You are the only ones within Narnia at this moment who can truly fight back the shadows moving behind the White Witch's lines. Your abileties are of need if we are ever to defeat this enemy and win this war. This is why I called you here."

For some reason Riku got the feeling that Aslan didn't just mean he'd sent the fox to fetch them, but that he'd actually somehow affected the Stargate to make them come to this place instead of the place they originaly had been set for. Strange as it sounded to him, the thought grew on him until he decided not to argue with it. Looking into the lion's eyes he was convinced that this being in a lion's form was capable of just about anything.

They all went inside the tent on Aslan's suggestion. Inside there was a large table placed in the centre, on which a large map was rolled out. Riku and the others soon learned that the tall blond boy was Peter, the dark haired one Edmund, the blonde tall girl Susan and the young dark haired girl was Lucy. All four were siblings and despite the fact that they all came from a world far from this, they were destined kings and queens of Narnia, being so by Aslan's choise. Peter, who Riku figured to be about two or three years younger than himself, sure acted his part out already. He had an air about him that spoke of a great leader and he was good at battle strategy, which he proved while they went through the plans for the upcoming battle against the White Witch and her allies. His siblings hung to every word he said and even young Lucy, who didn't look to be much older than ten years, had a serious expression in her face and even came up with a few ideas that solved some troublesome holes in her brother's plan.

Riku and his friends learned that their role in this battle would be to keep the heartless at bay and protect the royal siblings from said creatures so that they could do what they were supposed to do.

"You do realize that if the heartless are in as great a number as you fear, my keyblade will be a very small weapon against a very large mass of enemies?" Riku pointed out as he and Peter had a moment to them selves after the first briefing.

Peter looked at him with a curious expression in his eyes. It was as if he still wasn't sure whether Riku was as capable as Aslan had said or not. It was a bit frustrating to get that look from someone even younger than Sora.

"I don't know where you're from, Riku," Peter finally said, "but this is Narnia. I've learned that here there are no such things as limits to what you can do, as long as you believe strong enough that you can do it. Look at me." He put a hand to his chest as if to point at himself. "When I came here, I was nothing but a school boy, holding on to facts and believing that as long as I did as my elders told me, things would work out fine. I believed that my brother and sisters would listen to my words simply because I was _their_ elder. But now I know that I'm capable of so much more if I think for myself and I know to be prepared for things defying facts I've been told by others. I also know that in order to make others listen to you and respect your opinion, you first have to do the same towards them. Being a true leader, means to listen to the people around you, take their advice and speak _for_ them as much as you speak _to_ them. I don't order people around anymore. I listen to them and do what I see to be the best by using my own head and their advice. That's why they listen to me now and why they feel comfortable following my suggestions."

Riku looked at him in surprise as he spoke. The words coming out sounded more like the words of an old and very wise king, rather than being the words of this young guy he saw before him. In front of his eyes, Peter's appearance somehow changed and he could now see the future king in him.

"So you see," Peter continued, "if you fear the numbers of your opponent's allies to be too great for you to handle, your fear will make it so that you believe it enough to make it true. But if you walk into the battle believing you can make a difference, the number of the enemies won't matter, because your sheer belief in your own ability will enable you to take down a way larger amount of them than you believe is possible right now. And if you have something true to fight for, let it be the guide to get you through and you will be invincible."

Riku blinked. Peter had just reminded him of something he hadn't thought about for a very long time. When he had been trapped in the darkness he had been completely lost to the world, until he had found light to guide him. He had fought against a large amount of enemies and prevailed simply because he had seen no other possible outcome than him winning, no matter the power of the enemy before him. He had been intent on saving his friends, on helping Sora in his battle and on finding a way back into the light. And once, in the Land of Dragons, he had arrived too late to aid his friend in what he had feared to be an impossible battle, but Sora had managed on his own to take down a myriad of high level heartless. And in the battle at Radiant Garden, Sora had once again proved able to go up against an impossible amount of heartless. Sora had told Riku later on that even when he had been worn out to the very brink of his ability, he had kept on fighting with the one sole purpose of finding and saving him and making sure that Kairi would be safe as well. He hadn't cared about what happened to himself, but he had forced himself onward because he cared about what happened to his friends.

"What are you thinking about?"

Riku flinched, looking up to find Lucy standing in front of him and Peter.

"I was thinking about a friend of mine and that your brother reminds me of him in a way," Riku replied, giving her a smile.

"Is he the friend Aslan told me you were looking for when you came here?" she asked slowly.

Riku made big eyes at this, but nodded all the same. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Don't worry," Lucy said with a soft smile, "I'll make sure you make it through to keep looking for him. If you're hurt, just call for me, you hear?"

Riku smiled, moved by her sincerity. "Thanks, but how am I to know you'll hear me calling?"

"Take this," she said, producing a small silver pendant hanging from a silver chain necklace. On the pendant was the insignia of a lion's head. "Aslan said to give it to you. If you hold it in your hand and whisper my name, I will hear you and I'll hold on to this and do the same." She pulled out a duplicate of the necklace from inside her dress. "Wear it around the neck, and you'll only need to whisper. The pendant will bring me to you as soon as I answer your call."

"And you're sure you can help me then?" Riku asked, a bit doubtful, as he put the chain around his neck.

"Lucy has a gift given to her from Father Christmas," Peter said. "Her gift enables her to heal any wound. If Aslan has seen it fit to give you this priveliege, then you should take it."

Riku didn't know what to say but to once again thank the siblings for their faith in him and as he returned to Donatello and Hermione, he found out that they too had been given help by Aslan. Donatello had been given armour fit for his style of fighting and his appearance. Golden metal had been fitted over his arms and legs to protect them and he held a helmet in his hands, matching the rest of the outfit. He was told the armour had some sort of spell over it making it as hard as his own shell. Hermione had been fitted into new clothes. She looked like a completely different person with her hair held back by intricate patterns of beaded plaits and a huntress' dress of deep purple and gold. The skirt and sleeves were short to enable her to move freely and along her arms and legs she wore armour similar to that of Donatello, with the addition of an armor corset protecting her body. At her hip hung a wide, richly decorated leather belt with a holster where she kept her wand and over her shoulders she wore the cloak that had belonged to her friend. The last object gave her quite an eerie look, as whenever she turned so that the cloak's back came "in sight", she seemed to have been partly erased from existence.

They all went over the details once more of the strategy worked out for all of them. Riku would station himself a bit in front of and in-between Peter and Edmund, fending off heartless and keeping Peter's way of attack clear. Hermione would go with Susan and Lucy, using her magic to keep the both of them safe while Susan's arrows struck more solid targets than the heartless. Donatello would alter between the two groups and protect their rear.

The sound of a horn being blown far away interrupted them and as they went over to Aslan's tent to find out what was happening, the great lion confirmed what they had suspected. Over at the other side of the camp, behind a steep hill, lay a great plain that was going to be the battle ground. And now the White Witch's army had been spotted at the opposite side of the field. The war was upon them and there would be no turning back now.

"Riku," Aslan said, his voice vibrating with power as he spoke. Riku turned to the lion, his eyebrows raised in question.

"Yes?"

"Your comrades have been equipped with suitable armor, yet you have not requested any protection beyond that of Lucy's aid if needed. Do you not care to protect the heart that beats inside yourself?"

Taken aback by the lion's words, Riku struggled to find words to explain, but couldn't find any. He hadn't really thought about it, but now that it was pointed out to him, he realized that he had indeed overlooked his own security and had only been glad to notice that his friends' safety had been seen to.

Aslan nodded, then raised his gigantic head, opened his mouth and breathed on Riku. His breath was comfortably warm, like the sun on a perfect summerday at the beach back home. He had closed his eyes without knowing it and as he opened them, he half expected to see the ocean before him, but as he met with the golden eyes of Aslan, he noticed a change to himself. He moved one of his arms, realizing it was slightly heavier than before. As he looked down on himself, he saw that his entire body was covered by an armor seemingly tailored for him alone. Istead of the gold shimmer that had been on Donatello's and Hermione's suits, his had a silver gleam to it, with details of yellow and turquoise. It was a magical armor; he could sense it right away. It stuck to him like a second skin, a black fabric of sorts linking the metal pieces together and as he called forth the keyblade, he felt a surge of power go through every inch of the armor and his body.

"Wow," was all he could say, inspecting the armor.

"This is a gift that will stay with you, even after you've left this land," Aslan said with a quick smile on his feline lips. "It will materialize at your command and it will protect you against the heartless, as well as increase your strength for a period of time. It is however not invincible and you will still have to rely a lot on your basic skills and strength, but it is all I can do for you for now."

Riku bowed to the lion and thanked him for the gift, feeling in his heart that he indeed had gained a great power along with the armor.


	41. Part2: Chapter 24b: The battle

**Chapter 24b:2: The battle for all that is and has yet to be**

"_I hear they're getting closer, their howls are sending chills down my spine, and time is running out now, they're coming down the hills from behind. When we start killing, it's all coming down right now. From the nightmare we've created, I want to be awakened somehow. When we start killing it all will be falling down, from the hell that we're in. All we are is fading away. When we start killing_." (Within Temptation, _The howling_)

They all headed out for the battle field as soon as the army was gathered. Hermione, Susan and Lucy went to their positions at the rear of the army, while Donatello moved to be at Aslan's side. Riku, Peter and Edmund headed up front; Peter riding a powerful unicorn stallion and Edmund riding a large and strong horse who, for some reason, called himself Philip.

"Nice armor you've got," Edmund noted with a smile as Riku passed him to move up in front of the brothers. "Aslan's out-done himself."

Riku snorted. "Yeah, it's great. Not that I need armor though, but it's got a nice look to it."

Edmund grinned even wider, but said nothing more. His eyes revealed a great anxiety concerning what was ahead, and Riku understood his need to tune down the intensity of the moment for a bit. Truth be told, he was a bit worried himself as he spotted the enemy army. It was huge, perhaps three or four times as big as the army backing him up on Aslan's behalf. And a large amount of the numbers consisted of heartless. There seemed to be a great variety to them as well, from the small ordinary Shadows and all the way up to a gargantuan new type he hadn't seen before, looking very much like an elephant blown out of proportions.

A golden gryffon made a circulating move in the air, probably trying to get an overlook of the opposing army, before it landed next to Peter.

"I'm afraid it's as grim as it looks," Riku heard the gryffon tell Peter in a tense voice. "The White Witch has gathered up the shadows as her allies. Are you sure the keywielder will be able to keep up with them all?"

_"Good question,"_ Riku thought to himself, hardening his grip on the Magic Kingdom Key. "_I don't think I know the answer to that myself."_

"I have every reason to believe he will," Peter replied the gryffon, surprising both the mythical beast and Riku. "He is a lot stronger than he looks. Have faith in him, because I believe in him with every inch of my heart."

"Then so be it," the gryffon said and as if on a given signal, a phoenix bird shot to the sky setting itself ablaze as it closed in on the enemy front lines. As it dove to the ground a roar was heard from the beasts and various creatures of the Witch's army and a second later, large flames sprung up from the grass where the firebird had touched down with its wings. That was the starting signal for the battle.

The White Witch, a very tall and visciously beautiful woman in white and crystalline robes, rode in a large battle chariot pulled by two polar bears. She called her allies onward, raising a hand to the air, holding a long, fine wand seemingly made of ice. As she pointed at the flames, shooting off a spark of magic, the fire froze. The flames turned into pillars of ice, which then exploded into a fine silvery dust as the army pushed forward.

Peter raised his sword and called out the order. Arrows were shot to hit the first line of attackers straight on, and as the second salve of arrows was readied, the front line of Aslan's army was set in motion. The moment the two sides collided, the whole battle field turned into a chaos.

Riku rushed forward, sending his keyblade flying to take out a large Rhino Heartless before it had the chance to ram one of the centaurs. The very instant the keyblade returned to him, he threw it off again, this time to hit an armored Shadow of some sort, not quite managing to take it out with the first blow. He kept turning in all directions to keep track of his allies and of Peter and Edmund, so that he wouldn't lose sight of them. He slashed through a Cheeta Heartless only to be forced to jump over another attacking from behind its now fallen comrade. Riku spun on his heels as he landed, readying himself to take on the attacker, when Donatello's metal bo staff pierced it right through, the turtle having thrown it from a distance as he'd seen Riku's need of assistance.

"How're you holding up so far?" Donatello asked him as he ran up to collect his weapon.

"I'm working my butt off, that's what I'm doing," Riku huffed out, twirling around as he spoke and cut through yet another heartless. "If only I at least could wield two keyblades at once like Sora can. It would be a bit easier that way."

"Well, you're doing great," Donatello called out his support as he jumped off to see to another part of the battle.

Suddenly Riku realized that he was going about the battle in the wrong way. He was using only attacks he knew of, working plainly on insitinct and old habit, instead of letting the keyblade do the job of picking attacks for him. He had been told the blade would lend him great power if he only put some light into it. So that's what he did. He stopped in his motions and surged the weapon with all the light he could muster quickly at the moment, then sent it flying without even aiming. True enough, the keyblade started spinning in mid-air, glowing with a golden light as it raked through the enemy lines like a razor blade, the light forming the shape of a vicious lion's paw with claws outstretched, hitting each and every one of the heartless coming in its path. He could see it go straight through those not heartless without leaving a scratch, but as the weapon returned to him, he discovered that those hit by it had miraculously now turned on their former comrades.

"Now that's something I can use," he said with a grin, giving the keyblade another charge of his light powers. He sent it off again in the same manner and the procedure repeated itself. Before the blade had returned to him this time though, Riku found himself facing a Neo Shadow that sprung up from the ground right behind his back. He ducked its attack and escaped by a hair with a sideways roll. He spotted the keyblade coming towards him in the corner of his eye and was about to reach out and grab it, when yet another heartless came at him from the other direction. This one was in the rough shape of a wolf, pushing him to the ground before he had grabbed the keyblade. He saw his weapon collide with a stone wall and clatter to the ground some way off and felt his heart sink as the wolf lowered its fangs towards him. Instinctively he held up his arm in front of him and the wolf's fangs closed on the arm instead of his throat. He had expected pain of some sort, but as this didn't happen, he took a closer look at his enemy, and realized the heartless was trying hard to bite through his armor, without success. Riku sent a grateful thought towards Aslan for the armor and pushed upwards with all of his body, forcing the wolf heartless off him and down on the ground before him instead as he himself got back up on his feet. He reached out his hand and called for the keyblade in his mind and a seond later a bright flash of light brought it back to his hand, just in time to deflect the wolf heartless' attack before he cut it in half. He spun around to locate Peter and Edmund, finding out that Edmund had moved from his position on the cliffs to a far more dangerous place further up ahead, while Peter was stuck battling oncoming foes a bit higher up behind Riku's current position.

"Blast it," he muttered. "That kid is going to get himself killed if he keeps messing up the plan!" He squared his jaw and used a split second to decide whether or not he should go after Edmund or stick with Peter. Finding the older brother to be more capable of handling things himself than the younger one, he muttered a curse and started running at the top of his ability to catch up with Edmund. Charging the keyblade with as much light as he could, Riku quickly sent it flying to take care of heartless surrounding him as he went. When the keyblade returned to his hand, he had just caught up to the boy and manged to throw himself forward and deflect a blow from an enemy's sword which had been aiming for Edmund's neck. The keyblade, as mighty a weapon as it was against the heartless, was not made for a real deal combat up close with actual weapons, and Riku noticed how the sword managed to make a dent into his own weapon. He gritted his teeth and charged up the keyblade with yet another blast of light. This time though, he didn't have the time to send it flying. Instead he had to do what he could to defend against the oncoming attacks of the enemy. With a last muster of effort, he filled the keyblade with even more light, almost emptying his reserves of power, before setting off a new attack, this time with the keyblade still in his hands.

"LION'S ROAR!" he called out, releasing the attack and as he did, a blast of light streamed out from the weapon, taking the shape of a lion's head rushing towards and pushing back all enemies surrounding them, knocking some of the smaller ones over even, and obliterating every heartless within a five hundred meter area.

Riku panted hard from the effort, sweat pouring over his face and body as the attack was completed. His legs felt like over-boiled noodles and his muscles in arms and legs alike were vibrating from the strenuous usage of them. And he knew with a pang of fear that all of his light powers had been used up in that last attack.

Edmund turned to face him, his expression truning from gratitude and admiration, to one of severe concern. "Riku! Are you alright?"

"Sure," Riku huffed out, bending over as a cough came over him. "I'm… just dandy," he continued when he stopped coughing, shaking as he tried to straighten himself out again. "Let me rest for a year or so and I'll be as good as new."

Edmund didn't seem to appreciate his sense of humor, but Riku didn't care. He felt as if he'd finally reached his limit. Each attack he had made had drawn more strength from him than he had expected and he only realized it now when he had nothing more to give.

_Unless I use the darkness, that is._

The thought came unwanted, but once it had appeared, Riku couldn't let go of it. He still had the power of his darkness. He didn't like using it one bit, but he could do it none the less. It was a last resort, and he needed it badly right now. Just until his light was restored, anyway. He would have to work quickly though, while he was still standing.

"Hey, Edmund," he said as the kid got himself closer to him, helping him to stand up straight while keeping an eye out for enemies. At the moment the steady stream of foes seemed to have ceased due to the recent attack, but Riku knew as well as Edmund that this moment of rest wasn't going to be long. "I think you'll want to step back for a moment."

"Are you crazy? You'll fall to the ground if I let go of you now! You need to get some healing fast!" Edmund replied defiantly.

"Edmund," Riku repeated slowly as he gathered the darkness inside of him, readying himself, "step back. _Now_."

Something in Riku's voice had changed at the last word, making Edmund do as he was told. An icy cold chill to his comrade's skin had also made him wonder just what was happening to him.

A purple and black glow started to emanate from Riku's hands as the first enemies started to come close to where they were standing. Aided by the strength given from the darkness, Riku walked slowly towards the oncoming enemies, biding his time to make them come within his range of attack.

While Riku planned out his moves, he noticed Edmund backing away somewhat and was glad to see that a centaur had come up from behind to aid them. That took care of protecting Edmund. Now all he had to focus on was the mass ahead of him. He grinned viciously as the power inside of him increased. He could feel the movement of the heartless some distance away being slowed down a bit as they noticed his precence.

_"Good. Have them come here, all of them. That way I won't have to go looking for them all,"_ he thought with a bitter notion of how his physical state was getting worse by the minute. "_I'd say I've got about two or three good blows in me before I'll pass out._"

The very moment that the first heartless came within his range, Riku released the stored up power in his hands, creating a massive Dark Blast that shook the ground as it pressed forward and clashed with the enemies. He knew that the heartless wouldn't be even close to be anything but momentarily stunned by this form of attacks, but he did get their full attention though. Within an instant what seemed to be the entire gathering of heartless had regrouped them selves to come at him.

He turned to Edmund and the centaur behind him as he charged up for another blow. "Get Edmund over to Peter and make him stay put! This is going to get ugly pretty darn quick now!" he called out to the centaur, who took no time to heed his words, forcing an objecting Edmund up on his back and galloping away from the scene.

Riku turned his attention back towards the heartless, gritting his teeth at the cold numbness that started to spread in his legs. This wasn't going very well. With a roar he sent off the second attack, keeping the hordes at bay for a little while longer. He held a hand to his chest as the pain seared through him and took a few steps back in a failing attempt to keep his distance to the heartless.

"Lucy," he whispered, remembering her promise to aid him if needed. Then, despite knowing he hadn't recovered fully, he summoned the keyblade, changing the key chain to get the weapon he figured to be the best suited for the situation. The Full Metal key pulled his hands down a bit with its weight, but he ignored it. As he loaded the weapon with what ever power he had left in him, light as well as dark, the pipes of the blade pumped up and down in a rapidly increasing speed, the blades of the head shifting into position as the handles grew out and the symbols started to glow a deep blood red.

"Here goes," he mumbled through clenched teeth as he heaved the weapon away from himself, causing it to spin in mid air, stopping a short distance away from him as a red circle formed around its spinning form. He raised his shivering hands up to direct the attack as he called it out.

"CIRCLE CEREMONY!"

The red circle multiplied and as the duplicates started to fly out like razor blade Frisbees, cutting down all enemies in sight, he directed them so that no target would be missed. It took several hits from the circles to finish off the elephant-like heartless he had spotted previously, but as that one was taken care of, no heartless was left standing and he let his hands fall to his sides, the keyblade instantly stopping its spinning motion and returning to his hand, only to fall to the ground with a heavy thump and disappear as his fingers were too weak to hold on to it.

"Riku!"

He heard Lucy's voice as if coming through a thick pillow, muffled and distant. As he turned to look at her, he stumbled, and fell to the ground. He could hear Hermione's voice from somewhere as well, but he couldn't make out the words. Then he felt a burning sensation hitting his lips, tingling all the way down his throat and once it hit his insides, it spread throughout his entire body like a liquid fire, causing him to twitch and cough, sitting up in a burst of energy he'd thought himself incapable of only a second earlier.

"Riku, you IDIOT!"

It was Hermione. She was raving mad at him and tears were streaming down her face, creating stripes in the dirt that had covered her skin during the battle. He noticed a few cuts and bruises on her, but for the main part she seemed unharmed.

"Why didn't you call for help sooner?" Hermione demanded.

"Didn't… have… any time," Riku responded in a hoarse voice between coughs. "Besides… I did call… eventually… right?"

"Yeah, but not until you were half past dead!" Hermione retorted angrily.

"Hey, relax, Hermione," Lucy said calmly, corking a glass bottle she held in her hand. Riku figured the liquid inside of that bottle to be the cause of the burning sensation that had awoken him. A pretty strong curing potion, by the looks of it. "Riku's fine now. And he did take out the heartless. I have to get back to the rest of the group and see if anyone else needs healing."

Riku nodded. "Yeah, I'll come with you," he said, glad to finally have stopped coughing.

Hermione helped him up to his feet and with her supporting him, they started walking back to whence they'd come. Riku still felt weak, but his strength was most definetly returning.

They soon were reunited with the rest of the combatants on the field, but now that the heartless were gone, Aslan's army was clearly in the advantage. Susan fired off her arrows with a perfect precision from behind a protective line of soldiers, while both Peter and Edmund did a good job fending off attackers using their swords alongside a couple of rather large, fierce looking tigers.

Riku spotted Donatello in the midst of the battle, his bo-staff gleaming in the sunlight as it swished from one side to the other almost never being still as he spun it in his hands using it both as a weapon and as a support while jumping over enemies or allies. Feeling the strength return in full inside of him, Riku called the keyblade back to his hands, letting it take its original shape this time, as The Way to Dawn was the one blade he felt most used to wielding. It was among the lighter keyblades as well and it was made to be equally strong using darkness or light as a fuel to the attacks. He gave Hermione a wink as she was about to yell something reprimanding at him, then took a leap into the fight, aiming to get beside Donatello and help him out.

Suddenly something changed in the battle. Riku noticed the enemy warriors backing away and stepping aside as he got to Donatello's side. The turtle had noticed the change as well and had called out to the closest comrades to get to his side and be ready for anything. Just as three fauns and a leopard got to Donatello and Riku, the reason for the enemy's behavior was revealed, as the White Witch was seen storming towards the group, her wand at the ready in her hand and her chariot left behind as it was too clumsy to use at the terrain of the climbing hill.

"Oh, this can't be good," Donatello muttered and Riku tried to quickly think up a strategy to survive at least the first attack which he expected to arrive any moment now. Riku thought through the keyblades at his disposal and their various attacks and abilities. He knew that the Cat's Eye key increased his magical strength, but it worked the best with the light, and even though he was fairly healed up by now, his light powers were still on a low, while his dark reserves were a lot greater. His ony option was to keep the Way to Dawn and do his best to put up a dark barrier using the keyblade's ability to harness his darkness and turn it into an unstoppable force.

The very moment the Witch spotted them, she raised her wand towards them and Riku wasted no time casting his own spell even before the Witch made another move. The defensive wall of black shimmer rose to place itself before the small group only a split second before the White Witch's spell hit, the result being a loud blasting noise as the Dark Barrier shivered and shattered like glass, but its purpose of protection was achieved. The large woman scrunched up her face in a roar of disappointment when seeing the spell fail and Riku decided to take her on while she was a tad distracted by her failure. He shot off a dark blast and started running towards her, Donatello following suit without saying a word. The Witch avoided the dark blast with a wave of her wand, but the diversion was successful as Donatello shot forward, taking a leap using the bo-staff as support and hitting her straight in the chest with a high kick and sending her stumbling backwards in surprise. A large beast with a human-like body and an ox's head rushed into Donatello as he landed, taking him off-guard and ramming him into the close by mountain wall. Riku resisted the urge to check up on his friend and continued his assault on the White Witch, aiming a wide slash at her which was deflected in the very last moment by her wand, now used as a fighting tool. Riku jumped back quickly, recharging his dark powers and sent a surge of it to hit her squarely in the face. She screamed in anger at him, but seemed unharmed.

"How _dare_ you use those powers against _me_?" she roared, then showed an unnatural calm all of a sudden, raising the hand not holding her wand. "I am the White Queen, the ruler of this world as it is. I have the power to turn you into a pile of ashes or raise you up above the lesser creatures. You wield the darkness as a master, but be sure to know, that no one here can rule over it completely, but me."

Riku clenched his teeth, noticing a faint glimmer of yellow in her eyes as she spoke.

"Join me and you will know power beyond your dreams," she continued, her voice seductive and luring as she slowly stepped closer to him. "I can sure have use of a man like you by my side."

Riku snorted. "I've already seen what the darkness has to offer me, and I decided it wasn't worth the effort," he called out to her and as she stepped yet a little closer with a smug grin on her pale lips, he shot off a blast of light power, hitting her just below the chest with an immense force, causing her to step back in shock, her eyes widening as she stared at him.

"H-How…?" she stuttered, gasping for breath.

"You were wrong, by the way," Riku said calmly, re-charging his light once more, careful not to completely empty his reserves this time. "You're not even close to being as powerful as I am. Haven't you noticed that all of your heartless have been defeated? They listened to my call and I took them out."

"B-but you use the darkness… you couldn't possibly…" she mumbled, then she seemed to notice for the first time the weapon in his hand. "A keyblade? And yet you wield darkness?"

"What can I say? I'm one of a kind," he responded and raised his hand to let the light hit her again, but he had been too quick to judge his enemy as weakened. With a swift move she rose her arm and used her wand, shielding herself from the blast with a magical barrier which sent the attack straight back at him. Riku, unprepared for the rebound, found himself hit by the force of it full on and was sent flying backwards, crashing to the ground several paces away.

"Riku!" Donatello called out from somewhere close by and Riku tried to get back up on his feet, his entire body aching and tingling from the sheer force of the attack. It felt odd being thrown to the ground by his own power and to add up the bad results of it, the light had somehow nullified his dark reserves for the moment. He could hear the White Witch laugh at him and as he opened his eyes to look at her, he saw that she was once more raising her wand against him.

He had no way of dodging this attack, he knew it. The keyblade was thrown out of his hands and he was too weak to call it back in an instant, and since he had no magical powers left in him, he had no means of putting up a barrier either. Suddenly, he spotted a movement behind the Witch and just as she was about to cast her spell, Edmund jumped at her from behind, pushing the wand out of her hand with the aid of his sword. The wand spun through the air and crashed with a splintering sound into a stone wall, shattering into a thousand pieces.

The Witch screamed out in rage and threw Edmund off her, sending a curse at him with her hands alone as her white skin started to turn ashen. Riku strained to get his keyblade back into his hands before the Witch turned back to him, but she was faster. Her eyes now mainly yellow, with black whites and snake-like pupils, turned to him with hatred.

"_YOU WILL REGRET THIS BOY!"_ she roared and came at him with clawlike hands outstretched like an attacking beast.

But she was stopped in mid-stride by an earth-shaking roar from Aslan as the lion rushed to Riku's aid. This was all the time he needed to get the keyblade back in his hands and using both hands to raise it, he called out the command sought for, aiming straight at the tall ice crown on the Witch's head, where he had spotted a heartless crest embedded within the ice, looking like a jewel.

"_RELEASE!_"

The beam of light shot out at the mark the very moment she started to move at him again. As the crown shattered, she screamed, but this time the sound was one of severe pain, instead of one of rage. Riku felt his entire body go numb as the last of his energy was leaving him. As if in a mist he could see Aslan jump over him and land upon the Witch with open jaws. He could hear Donatello's voice coming close, and Hermione's as well, but he couldn't see anything now, his eyes falling shut as he fell back to the ground.

The burning sensation of Lucy's healing potion brought him back to awareness in what seemed a second later, and as he sat up coughing, he turned his head to look at his surroundings, finding the battlefield to have stilled. Bodies of enemies and allies alike lied spread on the ground before him and the remaining soldiers were walking among the fallen to check up on who were still alive and who were to be buried.

"Riku! I thought I told you to not do anything reckless like that again!" Hermione yelled at him from his left side and Donatello put his hand at his back, reassuring him that he was on his side in this.

"It wasn't like he had much of a choise, Hermione. He had to take away the heartless crest. Had he not done that, the White Witch would have killed him before Aslan arrived."

Riku started to smile, then he remembered something as he looked at Lucy's worried eyes. "Lucy! Edmund, he's… over there! You better hurry over to him!" he managed to splutter out between coughs and Lucy wasted no time in heading his words. She rushed to her feet and ran over to the spot where Riku had last seen Edmund fall to the ground.

A day later, after funerals of the fallen and a clearing of the battle field, the camp was breaking up as the ones still alive left to get back to their homes, to morn their lost ones and to relish in the freedom that would now follow upon the White Witch's fall from power. The four siblings Pevensie were to be named kings and queens of Narnia one week from now and all four of them invited Riku and his friends to stay, wishing to have them with them for just a little while longer, but Riku, feeling he had to keep moving if they were ever to keep up with the heartless' spread, declined. Later on, as he spoke with Aslan, the lion supported his decision.

"I do not pretend to wish for your leave, wielder of the keyblade, but I know just as well that your destiny lies elsewhere. Your time here is at its end and you must hurry on your journey if ever the worlds are to be safe from the darkness luring out there."

"You know a lot of things, Aslan," Riku said with a smile. He had somehow instantly come to love the lion like a dear uncle and he had truly wished there could have been an opportunity to stay a little longer in his presence. "Do you perhaps know where to find the heart of this world as well? And a way for us to get back to where we came from?"

The lion smiled, his eyes aglow and his full mane curling slightly in the ever present invisible wind that seemed to only exist for him. "I was the one who brought this world to be, my voice calling into existence every little part of it that you see. I know all there is to know about it and I also know what you ask for. Your way back will be somewhat different from the way you got here, since I am the one who changed your path as you came here. But your way out will never the less be at the same place as your way in. Fittingly enough, it is the same place which stands as the heart of this world. Just by the lamp post at the edge of the forest of evergreens where Lucy first stumbled upon this world."

"And how do we find our way back there?" Riku asked, remembering the place, but not the way.

"I will send you along with a trusted friend as guide. And you will have to leave as soon as possible, I assume, if you are to get shelter from the night."

Not long after, when Riku and the others had said their goodbyes to the Pevensie siblings and a number of other friends they'd made during the time before and after the battle, they left the camp sight together with Mickel, who had first got them there. The fox was limping slightly, but showed no other wounds from the battle and he was in a good mood as they all set out for the Lamp post forest. They spent the night at the home of a family of badgers, who welcomed them with open arms as the heroes who had helped win the battle. When the morning came, they set out at first light, but only after eating a steady breakfast forced upon them by a rather strict and yet motherly Mrs. Badger.

The closer they got to the Lamp post's postion, Riku got tense, staying on guard as they walked through the now blooming forest.

"Hey, lighten up Riku," Donatello said, patting him on the shoulder. "The worst part is over, right?"

"Hmpf," Riku huffed out, his eyes darting from this side to that. "I can sense the darkness lingering in the trees and the ground here," he said darkly. "As long as the heart isn't sealed, the heartless can still come back, even if the Witch is gone."

"I've been thinking about her," Hermione said slowly. "She seemed so certain of her power and she knew of the keyblade, you said, right?"

Riku nodded. "I know what you're thinking and I fear it's got to be true."

"She got the power from someone else, along with the knowledge of the keyblade," Hermione said, receiving a nod in response from Riku.

"Hold on! That would mean…" Donatello said, catching on to what they were saying.

"That who ever we're dealing with is starting to round up allies and that the person in question has the power to grant them all a piece of the control over the heartless," Riku said with a grim expression. "Just the way she managed to control the army of heartless before made me realize that she was something more than just a pawn taken over by a Parasite Heartless. She had a heartless inside of her, yes, but she had power over her own mind all along, as far as I could tell."

They walked on in silence for a while. Donatello was the first one to spot the lamp post, still burning strong as it stood in the middle of all the greenery. Ivy had started to climb up its pole and the glass of the head was cleaner than before, but other than that it looked just the same.

Riku felt a pang of cold air rush over his skin and had the keyblade in his hand within a second. Just as he had suspected, heartless sprang from the ground surrounding them only a moment later and both Hermione and Donatello readied them selves for battle. The first attack came soon, and as expected Riku was the target of it. He slashed an attacking Shadow in two, while Hermione blasted another away from his back and Donatello smacked another into a tree. A howling in the woods revealed that wolves were coming and soon enough they had a pack of heartless wolves surrounding them, a heartless-possessed Maugrim at their lead. Riku was surprised to see the previously defeated wolf in front of him, but as the yellow sheen in his eyes was spotted and the heartless crest flashed behind thick fur in his chest, Riku understood. The Parasite Heartless from the White Witch had escaped somehow and had found its way to the badly wounded wolf, taking its body for its own.

"So, you haven't had enough of me, have you?" Riku asked wittingly and Maugrim growled.

"_If you hadn't crushed the crown at that exact moment, I would have killed you fair and square,_ _you impudent brat!_" the heartless grumbled through Maugrim's voice. "_No matter what the master wishes, I would have killed you then and I will kill you now. Accidents happen, after all."_

Riku blinked. 'The master?' This "master" wanted him alive? That was a bit odd, he thought at first, but as the thought sunk in, he realized that it was in fact not that strange. He had a good guess as to who it was that was controlling the heartless this time around as well, no matter how impossible it seemed to him. And if Xehanort, or Ansem or whatever his name was, was indeed the one behind it all, he probably wished to take him out personally.

Maugrim barked and the pack of black shadowy wolves attacked as one, making it so that they all had their hands full just trying to avoid the attacks. Riku charged the Magic Kingdom key with light power and released the blast he'd learned to perform before, hoping it to be enough to at least take out the pack.

"LION'S ROAR!" he called out and just like before, the light sprung out from the blade in the shape of a lion's head. Each and every wolf heartless present was incinerated within an instant and Maugrim, try as he might to escape, was blown off his paws and pressed flat to the ground, the crest on his chest breaking as he fell. Riku saw the shifting shape of the heartless escape the dead wolf's body and this time he made sure to catch it before it got away. With a charge of power he sent his keyblade flying at it and with a screech it turned into smoke, leaving a crystal heart hovering in the air before dissolving into nothing. As the crystallized heart vanished, a shard of something looking very much like a sliver of a black crystal dropped to the ground with a soft ringing sound.

Riku walked closer, dismissing the keyblade as he went. It was indeed a piece of a crystal, obsidian black and gleaming seductively in the sunlight coming through the trees' top greenery.

"What is it?" Donatello asked, putting away his staff and coming up to stand next to him.

"A crystal," Riku mumbled in response, bending down to pick it up.

"Don't touch it!" Hermione warned, but too late. The moment Riku's fingers came in contact with the glassy surface, he felt a heartstabbing pain surge through him and backed off as quickly as he could, holding a hand to his chest, where his heart was suddenly racing madly.

"What in the world…" he huffed, staring at the small piece of crystal. "Hermione, how did you know..?"

"I didn't," she replied honestly. "I just assumed it to be of no good, coming from that creature's inside." She looked at his ashen face and at the hand that had touched the crystal. With a gasp she noticed how the skin on his hand had turned a dark grey, the color spreading out from the fingers and up over the arm. "We have to heal that, quickly!"

"It's like… a poison…" Riku panted, falling to his knees and feeling a strain in his every muscle as he spoke. An intense chill spread in his arm as the grey climbed further up along it.

Hermione fumbled with her wand for a moment, then managed to execute a healing spell, but to no avail. "It won't work!" she exclaimed with panic as she tried to go through her mind in a hunt for another spell that could do the trick.

"Is there nothing you can do?" Mickel asked, with fear in his voice and that's when Riku remembered the summon he had found in the home of the fauns. He had forgotten all about it until now. For some reason it seemed only logical that he should try using it now. His light reserves were replenished just enough to get the summoning to work. He managed to call the keyblade to his hands, shifting from the Magic Kingdom to the Cat's Eye to increase his magic a bit, then concentrated on the small golden braid in his pocket.

"Give… me… strength… Rapunzel!" he stuttered out as clearly as he could, pointing his keyblade straight up in the air, the tip of it pointing towards the sun. The silver keyblade suddenly took on a golden sheen, glowing warmly in his hand as a mist of gold showered out of its tip. Out of the mist appeared a young girl dressed in a simple purple dress, her feet bare and her hair let out. Said hair was a shimmering glowing golden color and as she moved it grew out of the golden mist until it encircled them all several times. All the while she was moving around them in a circle, she was singing what sounded like a lullaby.

"_Flower gleam and glow  
>Let your power shine<br>Make the clock reverse  
>Bring back what once was mine.<em>

_Heal what has been hurt  
>Change the fate's design<br>Save what has been lost  
>Bring back what once was mine,<br>what once was mine."_

Riku felt his entire body recuperate and his friends as well found that they were indeed relieved of any kind of pain they had been feeling before Rapunzel appeared. She stopped dancing as her song ended and she gave Riku a sad smile, before returning to the summon charm.

"Wow, that was some powerful summon," Donatello breathed out as he flexed his arms. "I feel better than I've been doing for years!"

Mickel nodded in agreement. "Indeed, I feel like just a young pup again."

Riku was releaved to find that his own wound had been healed as well and stood up, his keyblade still in his hand and turned to look at the crystal shard.

"What should we do with that thing?" Hermione asked, somehow having figured out what he was thinking about.

"I'll destroy it, using the keyblade. What ever it is it isn't good."

Suddenly a dark portal opened up before them. Riku backed away, surprised that he hadn't been able to sense the portal's opening before it was too late. Out came the shadow creature he'd seen before, its gleaming yellow eyes catching his own and he knew it recognized him.

"_Well, I ssshould have guessssed that you would be here, keyblade wielder,_" the creature hissed viciously, then its eyes fell upon the shard and it hissed out in annoyance, before diving to get it. Riku threw himself forward to stop it, but the creature was faster and it snatched the shard from the ground, got back up and threw off a blast of darkness at Riku who barely managed to doge it.

"_Thisss will pleassse my massster at leassst,_" it hissed with a grimace, then, as if it came to think about something funny, it pulled its lips upwards in a horrifying impression of a smile. "_It will come to good ussse, upon the other boy, yesss._"

Riku's eyes grew wide with comprehension and he sprang to his feet, rage fuling his speed.

"What have you done to Sora?" he called out, but the creature only smiled wickedly and jumped back inside the portal, the gateway closing itself before Riku managed to get to it. Letting out an exasperated roar from the bottom of his heart, Riku threw the keyblade away into the woods in front of him, its silver shape flashing in the sunlight as it cut into a tree trunk and then disappeared.

"Pull yourself together," Donatello said, his eyes showing all the understanding in the world as he looked at him. "We'll catch up to that thing soon enough, but first off you need to seal away this world's heart. Then we can work out how to best find and fight that thing and get back your friend."

Riku nodded silently, calling the keyblade back into his hands, this time letting it take the shape of the Magic Kingdom key. He went up to the lamp post knowing instinctively that that was where he should look. And sure enough, as he closed in on it, a keyhole appeared. He aimed at it, uttered the locking spell and a beam of golden light shot out to pierce the keyhole.

Once the heart was locked away, a gateway opened up among the trees closest to the lamp post, surrounded by a golden shimmer. On its other side they could see their room back at the Ratatouille Inn. Mickel bid them goodbye as they walked up to the portal, the forest of Narnia disappearing behind them and when Hermione stepped through as the last person, the portal vanished even before she had the time to turn and look over her shoulder.


	42. Part2: Chapter 25: Desert Lands

**Chapter 25:2: Desert lands**

_"I can't escape myself. So many times I've lied, but there's still rage inside. Somebody help me from this nightmare! I can't control myself! So what if you can see, there's dark inside of me? No one can ever change this animal I have become! Help me believe, it's not the real me! Somebody help me chain this animal!" _(_Animal I have become_, Three Days Grace)

"Will! Luffy!" Sora screamed out the names of his friends and coughed as he got a heap of sand blown into his mouth. He thought he could hear Will call out to him somewhere to his left and a couple of hundred steps in front of him. Eyes slitted as to not get too much stinging grains into them, Sora moved on towards the sound. Around him the sandstorm was roaring louder by the minute and he felt as if he was being scrubbed by sandpaper all over. He was having trouble breathing without taking sand into his lungs along with the oxygen and the wind was working against him so that for each step he took forwards, he was moved two steps back in the shifting sand beneath his feet.

They had entered this world more or less together, but somehow time had played a trick on them so that when they landed in this new place, they were separated by a number of minutes and it was enough to let them get lost in this sandstorm. Sora caught himself wondering whether or not the storm would ever end and shook the thought away quickly, eager to get more optimistic ideas into its place. He called out to his friends again, but this time all he could hear was the storm thundering around him. Looking around, he saw nothing but walls of moving sand and slowly, he began to fear for the safety of his friends. He stopped moving, figuring he was better off staying in one spot than walking aimlessly until he was hopelessly far away from his starting point. In order to keep his mouth and nose clear of the sand, Sora went down on his knees and bent over at his waist, covering his head with his hands and huddling up into a ball. This way, he had a small space of air between his face and his stomach, which let him breathe in a way that let in more air than sand. It wasn't long though, before the sand started to build up around him, almost covering him entirely. Scared of being unable to move free of the sand, Sora forced himself back up on his feet. He was rapidly growing tired from the constant attempt to keep in place in the roaring wind, but he was too afraid to sit back down.

That's when he felt it. Darkness was moving inside of him, lured into the light by his seemingly hopeless situation and his loneliness. Being parted from the others was feeding his already surfaced fears and soon he was reliving his worst memories, flipping by in his mind as clearly as if he'd been watching a slideshow. Sora screamed into the storm, earning a mouthful of sand as he did, but he didn't care. He felt as if he was going to burst from inside of his chest if he didn't somehow react to all the images in his mind. The scar over his heart was burning, aching and itching and he clawed at it with a desperate want for it to stop.

_You are alone_.

The words were echoing inside his head and for a moment Sora thought they had been spoken to him, whispered in his ear, but he knew there was no one there to have done it.

_You're pathetic. What a great warrior you've become, Sora. A keyblade master who can't even stand up against a sandstorm. A lonely boy who no one really cares about. _

Sora spun on his heels, certain that there had to be someone there speaking the words to him, but found nothing but whirling sand.

_Why don't you just give up? Let the world handle itself. You've done enough. What's so bad about leaving it to the darkness, anyway? Darkness isn't evil. _

Clutching his aching chest with one hand, Sora knocked the other to his forehead and bit his lip at the pain induced. The voice wasn't real. It was in his head. Mind ghosts' talking. It was nothing but bad memories and negative emotions concocting a hallucination of a bully wearing his own face and using his own voice. He knew he had to think of something else quick or he'd go insane. He closed his eyes and kept a hand as a shield over his mouth and nose, trying hard to breathe deeply and relax.

_Heh. As if that would help. You've already lost it, kid._

A flash of an image he couldn't remember having seen; a landscape of rocks and mountains and odd shapes sticking up from the ground. Pain. Sora fell to his knees, his hands on his head as a thundering pressure exploded in his head. Again, he screamed and he felt it as if a cold finger moved over his heart. He rolled himself up into a tight ball, his arms around his knees and his head to the sand beneath him, eyes shut hard against the small amount of light that the sandstorm let through.

Suddenly, the storm stopped and it was all over. Sora shook his shoulders free of the sand that had placed itself upon him and straightened himself slowly, careful not to wake the pain again. The cold inside of him was still there though, but at least the pain was gone and the sight cleared of sand clouds. But as he looked around, Sora's heart sank in his chest. Where ever he was, he was completely lost and utterly alone. There were no signs what so ever of Will or Luffy or any other living creature either, for that matter.

"Luffy! Will!" he called out in a last hope to find that they'd been standing behind one of the high dunes or a cliff. He was most definetly in a desert of some sort. All he could see was soft dunes and scattered pillars of rock here and there. And a cactus. "Just great," he muttered, brushing some sand out of his hair as he took off his hooded vest and put it over his head to use it as shade against the quickly heating sun. A sound somewhere behind him made him turn around, hoping to see one or both of his lost friends turn up from behind one of the rocks, but his smile was instantly replaced by a scowl and he had the keyblade in his hand even before he had the time to consciously think about producing it. The Demon Fang key gleamed viciously in the desert sun. For some reason, his new keychain from the ponies didn't activate. He decided to leave that be for now and scanned the area around him to make sure he knew the land before him.

The reason for his actions was a four-legged creature about twice his own size, which had suddenly crept out of the shade of a large rock. It had a blue and purple colored skin that looked just as thick as the hide of a rhino Sora remembered seeing once when he had been at the Pride Lands with Simba. Each limb ended in three-toed talons with claws thin as needles and about as long as a hand. At the back, it sported a long, thick tail with long spikes which traveled up the back towards its head. The head was a story in itself. While the rest of the body was covered in said armor thick skin, the head wore a metallic, bone-white construction looking much like a mask. It had a glowing, large yellow stone in the middle of the forehead, almost looking like a third eye placed in-between the two eyes on each side of the head, the color a perfect match. The creature looked at the keyblade, then at Sora and opened its mouth, revealing row upon row of long, needle sharp teeth as it let out a cackling sound and lowered towards the ground.

Sora breathed in slowly, calming himself in order to stay focused. This creature wasn't a heartless, but it sure as hell wasn't friendly either, so he was probably going to have to fight it. Whether or not the keyblade would work any good against it, he didn't know, but time would tell and he wasn't going to just stand idly by while the thing went for him.

With a shrilling scream the creature suddenly jumped towards him, and Sora threw himself to the side in a dodge roll, got back up on his feet and turned towards the thing, his weapon at the ready as it came charging again.

That's when number two came up from behind.

Sora experienced a share of pure luck as he moved to the left in the exact right moment to make the new arrival land upon its sibling instead of Sora as it jumped right past him. Spinning around with the keyblade out, Sora got a hit on the new attacker as it got back to its feet, the magically enforced blow sending it flying into the nearest rock pillar and shattering the fragile construction. The first beast now attacked again and Sora repeated his move from the first time around, but this time, the creature was prepared, moving in the same moment as he did, making it so that Sora quickly found himself mercilessly pinned to the ground with the heavy and drooling creature over him.

"Fuck," Sora uttered as he realized his position and managed to move the keyblade in front of his face just in time to save it from the saliva-dripping fangs of the monster, letting the creature taste the weapon instead. The move saved him for the moment, but as the monster drew its head back, it ripped the weapon right out of his hand and threw it away, only to return its face to him with a purring growl that sent shivers down Sora's spine.

His head spinning with a need to find a way out of this situation, Sora felt the darkness in his chest stir once more and he closed his eyes, ready to give in to the power of the last resort he now so desperately needed.

But before he could do anything at all, the monster on his chest was stopped in mid-motion towards his throat, by a projectile hitting its head with an explosion that sprayed brain matter and shards of bone all over Sora's face. He opened his eyes in disbelief, only to see the limp body upon him turn into a cloud of purple mist which rained down over him with a stinging sensation for each drop that landed on his skin, making him feel as if he was on fire. He stood quickly, calling the keyblade to his hand as the other creature turned towards him. But it didn't even have the time to move further, before another projectile hit it, with the same result as the first one and this time Sora noticed which direction the saving shot had come from. Turning around with a sense of fear-mixed relief, Sora tried to find his savior, hoping with all his heart it wasn't another enemy who'd only accidently saved his life just now. At the moment, he was ready to believe anything.

Some distance away a car of some sort stopped, Sora noticing the hum of the motor only after it was turned off. Up until now, his ears had been filled with the memory of the sound made by sand going through air with a very hurtful velocity. Now, he suddenly noticed the silence. Someone jumped out of the car from the driver's side, and a small animal of sorts got down in the sand on the other side, having apparently been sitting in the passenger's seat. Sora squinted his eyes for a bit to try and make out the features of the person coming towards him with powerful steps, but all he could notice to begin with was that it looked like a man with broad shoulders and what appeared to be long ears sticking out on the sides of his head like antennas. He was wearing a sleeveless dark-blue top, bone colored, loose fitted pants of some sort, calf high boots, armguards made out of some sort of orange gleaming metal, a left-side shoulder-guard and a red scarf over the lower part of his face, covering his mouth and nose. As he got closer, Sora noticed he wore a well-used pair of goggles over his eyes and that his hair, short kept as it was, seemed to shift from green to yellow. Another thing he noticed was that whoever this guy was, he was heavily armed with a gun looking to be the same size as Leon's gunblade.

"Hey, the kid's alive!"

Sora blinked. The voice had come from the small, orange and yellow animal walking beside the mysterious, goggled man. Luckily enough, he was used to stranger things than talking animals, and adjusted almost instantly. With a smile on his lips, he brought his free hand up in a slight wave. Scared he noticed that his arm felt unusually heavy as he moved it. A dizziness had started to grow slowly in his head and the keyblade hand felt a bit numb from holding the weapon. Never the less he kept looking straight at the two as they came closer to him.

"Yeah, thanks to you two, I guess," he called out as a reply to what the animal had noted.

Now that the guy came up to him, Sora could see that he was about half a head shorter than himself, and that what was sticking out from his head really _was_ his ears. With a desperate desire to have Will around, Sora thought about the fact that his probably rather apparent lack of similar appearance might bring out some uncomfortable questions.

The guy before him stopped and lifted his goggles, placing them to rest upon his head instead and looked straight at Sora with interest and suspicion shining in the sharp sky blue eyes. As he hooked down the scarf from his broad nose, Sora noticed that the man sported a short, bright green goatee as well as a matching short beard lining following his wide jaws.

"You're not from around here," he said with a deep, but surprisingly young voice, sounding a lot younger than his face's harsh features had let Sora believe he was.

Figuring there was little point in denying the facts as long as he kept away from the whole "another world"-thing, Sora shook his head in response. "What tipped you off?" he added in a try to loosen the tension in the air.

The other guy lifted one of the thick, green eyebrows and huffed. "For one, your weapon look a bit odd and no one from around here enters the Waste Lands without a gun, unless you're some kind of a fugitive."

Sora looked from his keyblade, with the Demon Fang's sword-like shape, to the gun strapped to the other guy's back and had to admit that at first look the weapon in his hand probably didn't seem to be all that much of a protection in compairance to that of the other.

"Secondly, your clothes look funny," the small animal added and took a jump up to land on the shoulder-guard of his partner. Sora now noticed that it had a pair of goggles as well, placed upon its head together with a brown leather cap with loose hanging straps. It even had fingerless leather gloves on its small, hand-like front paws and well fitting pants with a hole in the back for the tail.

"Dax, there's no need to be rude," the man muttered to the animal. 'Dax' only shrugged at the comment.

"What? They _do_ look funny."

Sora felt his face grow slightly hotter than the rest of him and wished he could hide himself. As he felt the heat travel to his ears, he also noticed something he hadn't realized earlier: his ears were longer than usual. In fact, it seemed as if they were looking rather much like the ears his savior had. He almost smiled with relief at this discovery, but kept it in so as not to seem daft. In a way to distract himself, Sora let his eyes search for the vest that he had dropped during his encounter with the beasts, but couldn't see it.

"Well, I'm not from around here and I'm sort of lost," Sora admitted. "My friends and I got separated in the sandstorm and if it hadn't been for you guys, I'd probably been eaten by those things right now. I can't thank you enough for your help there."

This seemed to make the long-eared guy think of something and he walked over to where the creatures had been hit, bending down to pick something up from the ground at both spots. When he came back, Sora saw that it was the yellow stones that had been placed in the middle of the creatures' skulls. When he looked at Sora, it was as if he was thinking hard about a problem he couldn't solve.

"Something the matter?" Sora asked, feeling a bit on edge.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok?"

Sora blinked and scratched the back of his head in his customary nervous action. "Now that you mention it, I'm feeling a bit dizzy and tired, but I'm guessing it's got to do with the heat. Why?"

The other stared at him in silence for a moment before he answered, the small animal on his shoulder looking from one to the other in curious anticipation. "That first metalhead was vaporized right above you. That amount of dark eco in a direct hit would make anyone roll around on the ground in agony, screaming from pain," the other said finally and Sora felt a chill go through him. He had been hit by poison and hadn't reacted other than feeling a bit burned and light-headed? That would be hard to explain.

"Err…" he said as he desperately tried to find the words, but was interrupted by the animal that Sora remembered being called Dax.

"Wow, maybe he's another freak like us, huh, Jak?"

'Jak' gave his furry friend a dubious look, then shook his head slowly.

"You'll have to excuse him. He likes to talk before he thinks," he said, turning to Sora. "The important thing is that you're alive. I don't care much about the other stuff. You said you were separated from your friends?"

Sora nodded, glad to talk about something else but his own strangeness. "Yeah. There's Luffy, a skinny black-haired guy with a straw hat, and Will, a girl with bright red hair. Have you seen them?"

Jak and Dax both shook their heads at this and Sora's heart sank. He really hoped that the others were ok.

"No, we haven't, and if they were in the sandstorm it's hard to tell where they could be now," Jak said slowly.

"Thanks anyway," Sora said with a sigh and, realizing he still held the keyblade, let it disappear to take the extra weight away. He was starting to feel awfully tired.

"Hey, kid, you don't look too good," Dax suddenly noted and Jak's features turned worried as he looked at Sora.

"I'm just tired, that's all. I'm not used to this heat…" Sora tried to explain, but his voice trailed off as the dizziness intensified for a moment.

Jak was quick to move in and took a firm grip on his arm, supporting him so that he wouldn't fall over.

"I think you'd better come back to Spargus with us, stranger or not. You need a healer," Jak said with a steady but worried voice. "What's your name?"

"Huh?" Sora was starting to lose bits of the conversation and got worried he might not be all that unaffected by the poison thing after all.

"What's your name?" Jak repeated as he started to move Sora towards the car.

"Sora," Sora replied, his tongue feeling swollen in his mouth.

"Ok, Sora. I'm Jak and this is Daxter. We're going to take you to see someone who might be able to help you out. You just need to get into the car and try to stay awake!" Jak instructed him and quickened up his pace, almost carrying Sora the last few steps to the car, before helping him climb inside.

"Dax, keep an eye on him and try to keep him from falling asleep!"

"Aye-aye!" Daxter replied and jumped off his place on Jak's shoulder and down onto the seat next to Sora.

Sora turned to look at the orange animal while Jak got into the driver's seat and started the car.

"What did you mean back there, when you said I was a freak like you two?" he asked, trying desperately to keep his heavy eyelids from sliding shut as the car got into movement. Daxter slithered across his knees and grabbed a belt buckle, slithered back to the other side of him and brought the belt with him, fastening it over Sora's hips before buckling himself up in a similar way.

"Jak drives a bit rough, so seatbelts are needed to stay in one piece," Daxter commented with a grin while the car picked up speed.

Sora grimaced as he tried to remember the question he had given the orange animal and as he did, he realized it hadn't been answered, so he tried repeating it.

"What…uh…wha…"he trailed off as his eyes slid shut and in an instant he fell into darkness and all his former pain was back in full force.

_Sora blinked in a try to see anything else but the neverending darkness around him, but to no avail. He was falling, floating, soaring through a dark abyss and how ever he tried to do so, he couldn't find even the slightest spot of light. He couldn't even see himself, and he felt as if he was somehow de-tached from his body, a strange numbing sensation covering his skin. But in his chest he was feeling a pain like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was as though his heart was slowly being consumed by sharp and burning cold fangs while it was still beating inside of him. He tried to move to get what ever it was that was hurting him away from his chest, but his slow movements were clumsy and ineffective. He tried to scream, but as he opened his mouth it was filled with the thick, sticky goo of darkness, almost causing him to throw up. With rising panic he felt it slither down his throat and fill him up from the inside, blocking his breathing and preventing him from moving as it filled up his muscles. No matter how much he tried he couldn't move, couldn't make a sound and couldn't breathe. _

Relax, hero. Just let it do its stuff and you'll be rid of all the pain.

_It was the voice from before, the one he'd heard in the sandstorm. But this time he recognized it. As he stared out into the darkness he saw a person materializing before him, a young man with black hair and yellow, gleaming eyes. A vicious smile spread on his lips as he got closer to Sora. _

You won't die, you know. Just call it taking a vacation from all that mess that you're in. I'll make sure to get rid of all the things that causes you pain and you will be free of your cursed existence as a pawn for the light.

_He made a move as if to point out the surroundings_. Just look at this place. That dark stuff you were exposed to is a marvel of power! You'd be a fool not to use it!

_Sora tried to move, tried to speak up and tell him to get the hell out of his body, but he couldn't. The darkness filled him up and as he tried to fight it off, it sent a piercing pain through his entire body. Shocked, he felt a tear roll down his cheek. The dark personality in front of him laughed. _

Are you crying? Seriously? The big and powerful, almighty Sora, the hero of the light, the chosen wielder of the keyblade, is _crying_? This is just too good!

_Sora tried to stay focused on resisting the darkness, but felt his resolve weaken as the guy kept laughing at him. _

Kairi_._ _Sora's thought was weak, but none the less it was effective. Remembering the name of the girl he loved sent a spark through his body, causing him to cough and with a convulsion he spewed out all of the slimy darkness that had held him prisoner. He could once more move his limbs and he could breathe. Tears streamed down his face as he reveled in the sensation of being able to just breathe._

Don't think you can escape me, _the dark man said as he backed away from him_. I'm a part of you and you will call for my help, sooner or later.

"Never," _Sora replied defiantly, his throat sore and his voice raspy_. "I'll never give in to the darkness!"

Be careful with your promises, hero. You might not be able to keep them.

"Just get the hell away from me!" _Sora screamed and stumbled to his feet in a try to chase the guy away._ "Leave me ALONE!"

Sure_,_ _the guy replied, grinning_. But without me, this is really going to hurt_._

"What…?" _Sora started, but as soon as the taunting face of the other disappeared into the darkness, his entire body filled up with an intense pain, all numbness gone from his limbs. His head felt like it was about to crack open and every muscle, every inch of his bones felt as if it was pierced through with jagged, electrified needles._

So he screamed.

"Calm down! It's alright, boy! Keep him down! I've almost got all of it out of him now!" someone called out above him and Sora opened his eyes. His entire body was shivering and twitching from pain and he screamed again as something seemed to be pulled out of the skin on his chest in a horribly painful manner. Someone was holding him down to the bed he was placed upon, a pair of strong hands pressing his arms down on either side of him and another pair of hands pressing down his feet.

"There, that should do it," the stranger said and Sora finally managed to focus on the one who'd spoken and saw a young androgynous face covered in white face paint with yellow and red symbols drawn at the eyes and the bridge of the nose. The person wore a dark leather cap over the head and strange looking robes of an orange color served as some kind of clothing.

"Where…am I?" Sora panted, noticing now that sweat was covering his face. His body was aching and his head throbbed as if he'd just rushed into a brick wall. "What…happened…?"

"You're in Spargus," a more familiar voice replied and he felt something small jump up to stand on his chest. Directing his eyes to this spot, Soa recognized the orange and yellow animal that was Daxter. "And you're one lucky guy, I tell ya'! You were about _this_ close to turning in the towel there," Daxter continued, illustrating his words with his thumb and index finger. "Lucky for you this monk here had a chunk of a light eco crystal with him."

Sora looked from Daxter to the face-painted monk and back again.

"Light…eco?" He tried hard to grasp what it was that Daxer was talking about, but the tingling pain in his body and head still took up a lot of his attention.

"It's got great healing abileties," another familiar voice said and Sora turned his head slowly to look at Jak, who apparently had been one of the people to hold him down to the bed. "But it's very rare, so you were lucky indeed. The dark eco spread fast and we only barely managed to get it out in time."

Sora summed up the information in his head and figured that this "dark eco"-thing had to be the purple stuff that had hit him as the metalhead monster had exploded, and that it had a counter part in this "light eco".

"Thanks for saving me," Sora breathed out and forced a smile onto his lips. "Again," he added, thinking about how they'd saved him from not only this poisoning, but from the monsters as well.

Jak gave him a quick smile, then turned to talk to one of the others that were in the room. Sora didn't bother to look who else were there. He just closed his eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	43. Part 2: Chapter 26 Bayou

_Sorry for the delay folks! I've been... both busy and lazy and whatnot. Mostly I've been forgetful. But, finally, the story continues! Back to some Kairi-action! /Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>Part 2: Chapter 26: Bayou<strong>

"_It has to be dark for the stars to show_." (Unknown)

"This is just… grose," Kairi muttered and pulled her foot free from the deep and sticky mud that they were all standing in. Cold, muddy water reached them to their calves and everywhere they looked there were mangrove trees, covered with moss and other various slimey plants.

"We're in a swamp," Hauru noted blankly and shrugged. "I can't do much about it. We'll just have to walk on ahead and try to get to some dry land."

"I'd hate to disappoint you, oh powerful magician, but a swamp usually means that the terrain isn't all that trustworthy," Astrid cut in, trying to balance her self up so that she wouldn't fall over as she lifted her foot out of the water in a try to tie one of the leather bands on her boot a bit tighter. "Meaning we might have to re-think our means of transport."

Hauru lifted an eyebrow as he looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "Oh, I intend to," he said, giving Kairi a wink and then, lifting his arms high, he let his magic flow about him. His hair lifted from his shoulders, and the water he was standing in started to move away from him, pushed by the static enveloping his body. He directed his hands towards the closest tree and soon it started to sprout a new branch which grew rapidly longer and thicker until it was about three meters long and two across. With a wink of his hand, Hauru let the branch break off from the trunk and land with a soft splash in the water, where it started to change shape into a boat. From the boat's sides grew long oars that stayed connected to the boat through thick vines, making it possible to use them for rowing. When the boat was finished, Hauru lowered his hands and exhaled slowly as the magic went back inside of him.

"That worked even better than I had hoped for," he said as the girls stared at the boat in wonder. "I'm guessing this world is really compatable with my magic."

"I'll never question your power again," Astrid said slowly, looking from the boat to Hauru with her eyes wide open. "I didn't know you could do that."

Hauru shrugged. "As I've explained before, not all of the worlds we've visited are compatable with my magic. The world of Montessor Space Port for example is a place with its magic hidden deep down in the world's fibres. Here though, magic is slumbering at the surface, making it easier for me to use the power I have."

Kairi nodded slowly. "Makes sense," she said and smiled. "Now then, perhaps we should get into the boat?"

"Where should we go?" Astrid asked once they were all in the boat. She took off one of her fur boots, held it over the railing and twisted it to get some water out of it, before repeating the procedure with her other boot.

Hauru looked at Kairi askance and Kairi in turn closed her eyes and searched with the light in her heart for a direction. How ever, before she had pinpointed their goal, she was interrupted in her search by a shrill scream that found its way in under her very skin. She opened her eyes in an instant, fear causing her heart to race as she tried hard to spot the danger.

"What is it?" Astrid asked, having felt a chill, even though she hadn't heard the scream.

Hauru looked at her with worry in his eyes. "Kairi? What's the matter?"

"Something… evil…" Kairi mumbled, turning her head about as she kept her eyes at the growing shadows among the trees. "Something truly evil is in this place and it's heading in this direction. It isn't the heartless, but it's evil none the less."

"Why can't we for once just have a nice time and relax?" Astrid muttered, but a smile crept onto her lips as she loosened the axe from its holder.

Suddenly a group of shadows sped past them, disturbing the water surface as they went, a cackling sound following them.

"What in the name of Hel was that?" Astrid uttered in a shiver as she stared after the monsterous shadows.

"Something evil," Kairi concluded and turned quickly to Hauru. "Can we keep up with them?"

Hauru nodded, moved his hands about as he uttered a spell under his breath. Two new pairs of oars grew out of the boat and as soon as they were finished, all oars started to move, turning the boat and pushed it up to speed in pursuit of the shadows.

"Do you think we can do anything about them?" Astrid asked Kairi, squeezing the handle of her axe.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we can do _something._ What ever those things are up to, it means trouble for whoever's in the receiving end. Besides, something tells me that those things are connected to the heartless here somehow."

"NAVEEN!"

A young woman's voice was heard screaming somewhere ahead of them and Hauru made the boat go a bit faster. Kairi could soon see the shadows speed back in their direction, holding on to another shadow, belonging to…

"A frog?" Astrid asked in surprise as she spotted them as well.

Kairi didn't bother thinking about it, instead she called her keyblade into being, charged it with her light power and leapt from the boat just as the shadows came at them. With a wide slash down at the shadows on the water surface, a cresent of light cut the beasts in half. They exploded in a burst of light and disappeared with a cackling scream.

A second later Kairi broke through the water surface, sinking quick and deep down underwater. She could see the frog she'd saved swim down towards her, but before it could reach her, a large reptile dived in, speeding towards Kairi and as it came closer, she realized it was an alligator. With panic fueling her movements, Kairi straightened herself up in the water and desperately clawed her way up towards the surface. But the animal was faster, and Kairi closed her eyes as it closed in on her, fully believing she'd be feeling sharp teeth penetrate her flesh in a matter of seconds. But to her surprise, she felt the animal grab her with its legs, holding her tight as it swam to the surface in high speed.

"Kairi!" Astrid called out as Kairi and the alligator broke the surface. Kairi inhaled deeply, opened her eyes and pushed away from the reptile, trodding water for a moment as she brushed her soaked bangs out of her eyes and tried to calm her heart.

"I'm… I'm alright, Astrid. This… alligator here saved me…"

The reptile looked at her with emotional eyes, grunting something incomprehencible.

"Err…thanks?" Kairi said, trying hard to understand what was happening. Suddenly the frog she'd saved from the shadows showed up next to the alligator, another, smaller frog following him.

"Thank you for saving my life, dear maiden," the larger frog suddenly said as he swam up to her.

"I hope Louis here didn't give you too big a scare," the smaller one added, Kairi recognizing her voice as the one that had screamed earlier.

"Well," Kairi said as she tried to figure out how it was that the frogs could talk but the gator couldn't, "to be honest I did for a moment think I was going to end up being his dinner, but I'm glad he helped me up there. I didn't expect the water to be so deep here."

"The frogs talk?" Astrid asked as the boat was moved in closer to Kairi. Hauru bent down and heaved her up into the boat, shaking his head at her.

"Did you even stop to think for a moment?" he asked, and Kairi shrugged, smiling.

"Nope. I just knew I had to try it before they got too far away from us."

"Well, I'm glad for what she did," the male frog said, swimming closer to the boat before leaping up to sit on the railing. "I am for always in your dept," he said, stood up and bowed to Kairi. "Let me introduce myself; I am Prince Naveen of Maldonia."

"Prince?" Astrid huffed, wrinkling her nose. "A frog prince? Now I've seen just about everything."

"It's true," the female frog said, hopping onto the boat to stand next to Naveen. "The Shadowman turned him into a frog, and somehow the spell sort of passed on to me when I tried to break it for him. That's why we both can talk so that you understand us."

"Let me guess, you're a princess, right?" Astrid said in mock and got a rather annoyed stare from the frog in question.

"I am _not_ a princess! My name's Tiana and I worked at the masquerade as a serving girl when I bumped into Naveen."

"So…what are you all doing out in the swamp?" Kairi asked.

"Well," Tiana started, but Naveen interrupted her.

"We need to find someone who can turn me back into a human before the Shadowman succeeds in his plans, whatever those may be."

"In the swamp?" Astrid asked, still not quite gripping the story.

"We heard from Louis here about a voodoo witch living out here, and Ray is showing us the way," Tiana explained.

"Who's Ray?" Kairi wondered looking around them.

Suddenly a small firefly showed up next to the frogs, buzzing something to them.

"This is Ray," Tiana said with a smile. "He's been really nice to us, showing the way and all. He's wondering why you could get rid of those shadow demons before. It's really no easy thing to do, since they're part of the Shadowman's voodoo magic."

Hauru interrupted Kairi as she was about to speak, giving her a bottled potion to drink before she did anything else.

"You'll need to get warm and dry up, Kairi," he said, then turned to the frogs. "We can talk about this on the way to that witch you talked about, so just tell Ray to lead the way and I'll direct the boat to follow him."

The firefly seemed to have understood Hauru's words without any translation though, as he zoomed off to guide them into the dark. Kairi and her friends explained the best they could about their reason for being there. As Tiana and Naveen heard about her light magic, they both started asking her about breaking the spell they were in, but she had to explain that it wasn't the kind of magic that could do that sort of thing, as far as she knew. Hauru also hurried to explain his magic as well.

"We both hold magic, but mixing it with the voodoo might actually end up making the curse worse," he finished and both frogs nodded their understanding.

"I guess Mama Odie is the only one we can turn to then," Tiana said with a sigh.

"By the way, have you happened to see any other kind of shadows around here?" Kairi asked. "I mean, not the ones the Shadowman sent after you, but more material ones, with yellow eyes."

Tiana and naveen thought for a moment then shook their heads, causing Kairi to sigh. Perhaps this world hadn't been targeted yet?

Suddenly the boat came to a stop as it bumped into land. Louis crawled out of the water and Ray landed on the tip of his snout.

"I'm guessing it's on foot the rest of the way," Astrid said and got a nod as reply from Tiana and Naveen before they both jumped ashore. Hauru was the last to step out of the boat, and when he did, he turned to the boat, waved his hands at it and made it shrink somewhat and grow roots, fastening it to the ground. When Kairi and the others turned to look at him askance, he just shrugged.

"I'm just making sure it doesn't float off."

A light flashed somewhwere ahead of them, quickly followed by another and the gang hurried forward as they could hear an old woman yapping about. When they reached the scene, they could see what Kairi and Hauru had sensed down by the boat. Heartless.

The black creatures moved about circling the old woman in the center, quickly introduced by Ray through Tiana, as being none other than the voodoo witch they'd been searching for. She sweeped a dried pear shaped pumpkin about her, shooting at the heartless with blasts of firey light as she muttered curses at them. No matter how well she aimed, the light simply went right through them and they seemingly only kept their distance to her as a way of finding out whether she had any more tricks up her sleeves or not, before getting closer.

"Are ye' all gonna' help me out or not?" the woman yelled at the group of friends gathered. "These shadows aren't any demons of the Shadowman I tell ya'! Damned critters!"

Kairi called forth her keyblade instantly and rushed to her aid. She slashed down at the closest heartless with a starshimmering cresent of light, the heartless disappearing right away in a puff of dark smoke, the hovering crystalline hearts sailing to the sky as she went on dealing with the rest of them. Only now did she notice the changed shape of her keyblade and as she swung it again, yet another shower of small bright stars rained over the heartless in the shape of a white cresent moon, imitating the shape making out the tip of the very long keyblade that was now in her hands. _The Moon Staff_ that she had been given by the Sailor Soldiers was indeed mainly shaped like a staff, the long body being a deep dark blue covered in small shimmering stars. At the top was a lopsided golden crown with three spikes. Upon it followed a ruby red stone and a deep pink crystal heart, holding up a golden yellow cresent moon, serving as the key head. Along the staff a pale pink ribbon was winded in a spiral down to a deep pink heart framed by gold and topped with a right-sided version of the crown at the keyblade's top. On each side of the heart a pair of small white wings spread out. The heart served as the junction between blade and hilt. The ribbon flowed down into a short handle on one side of the very long grip, which was simply a continuation of the long blade. Finally, at the bottom of the hilt in a golden hoop, dangled the _Moon Staff_ keychain. The long range of the keyblade and the long grip made it possible for Kairi to hold on to it with both hands and swing at enemies far off from her ordinary range and still hit full on. But as the keyblade had come out, the heartless had increased, now swarming the small clearing.

Kairi let more light flow into the keyblade, feeling its powers awaken as she did so and felt the attack build up. She ran to Mama Odie's side, gripping the Moon Staff blade with both hands as she turned to stand back to back with the old woman.

"Just keep moving with me," she told the woman, who nodded her understanding and smacked a heartless away with her makeshift voodoo magic staff pumpkin.

"Just make it quick, sweetcakes, 'cause 'em beasties be gettin' a bit too close for comfort."

As the charge was finished, Kairi took a deep breath, jumped into the air in a spin as she slashed with the keyblade.

"MOON BEAM STARDUST!" she called out as the attack exploded out from the keyblade. A spiral of white shimmering stars flowed where she moved the keyblade, spiraling out to cover all surrounding heartless with a light dust that enclosed them like hard, pearly white shells, stopping them in their movements before shattering and releasing their crystalline hearts into the air all at once.

Mama Odie whistled low as Kairi landed on her feet next to her, the keyblade vanishing with a sweep of her hand.

"Now that's some fightin' spirit girlie!" the old woman clucked in a pleased manner, then turned to the gathered group of friends standing a bit aside from the battlefield. Hauru and Astrid had stayed with Louis, Ray, Tiana and Naveen, keeping them safe from attacks while Kairi had focused on the main group. "Someone's been messin' with the Shadowman," Mama Odie said in a reprimanding tone. "I may be a 197 year old blind woman, but I can smell that evil-doer's work from a mile away."

Hauru, Astrid, Tiana, Ray and Louis all pointed at Naveen, who huffed in embarrassment as he stepped forth. "Heh, well, that would be me," he said.


	44. Part 2: Chapter 27 Thieves and Heroes

**Chapter 27:2: Thieves and heroes**

_"__Let us then cast off the deeds of darkness…" _(_The Bible_, Rom 13:12)

"I just _knew_ I shouldn't have followed that darn book's advice in spell casting!" Hermione muttered and fussed about with her cloak to get hold of the _Very Useful Book_, which proved a bit harder than expected, since her hands had turned into something looking more like large wings, feathers and all. "Why does this keep happening to me?" she muttered with a hooting sound that came very close to a growl and gave up on retrieving the book from inside her pocket.

"Well, I for one think you look quite charming like that," Donatello said with a smile, patting her shoulder.

"Says the _one_ guy who gets to stay as normal!" Hermione muttered grumpily.

"Cut it out now, Hermione. The spell was supposed to make us fit in with the people living in this world, and judging by our appearances, being a human in this place would have been a bit hard to explain," Riku said as he tried to hike up his pants a bit more before tightening the belt around his thin waist. His legs were shorter, but his back longer, making it a bit difficult to adjust his clothes to fit the way he wanted.

"Yeah, but _look_ at me!" Hermione whined. "At least you turned into a silver fox! I'm a bloody owl!" she added with a clappering of her short beak, spreading her wings wide as if to point at the obvious change in her appearance.

"Well, technically you're a tawny owl, also known to some as a cat-owl," Donatello said.

"_NOT HELPING!_" Hermione spat at him, her big eyes looking rather viscious as she stared him down.

"Calm down you two," Riku said in annoyance as he pushed a paw-hand through the thick mass of silvery fur on his head. "I'm trying to think of what to do next."

They had ended up in an old castle ruin in the outskirts of a large forest. The Stargate they had entered through looked ready to fall apart any minute now, but as long as no one knew about it, then they could assume it to be safe for them to use it once they got to the part of getting back to Montessor Space Port. Hermione's book had once again given them the coordinates needed, as well as the added spell for their appearances. Hermione had thought it a wise spell to use at the moment, but now she obviously regretted having casted it before they left.

"So," Hermione said, her voice a forced calm. "Where are we?"

Riku shrugged and made his thick tail sway about his knees in a try to figure out how it worked. "Beats me. It's not like I have a map over worlds un-visited in my back pocket."

"Sherwood Forest," Donatello suggested and the other two looked at him in wonder.

"There's a sign just up ahead at the start of the forest, guys," the turtle said with a sigh and shook his head. They turned to look and realized that he was right.

Feeling a bit sheepish for not having noticed the sign himself, Riku went over to it and took a look. It was a rough board of wood, nailed onto a rather crooked, thin tree just next to the road leading into the forest. On the board someone had written "Sherwood Forest- Beware of bandits" with a piece of charcoal.

"I'm guessing it's not a very friendly territory then," he muttered and took a look around the spot. The road was not well used, he could tell by the lack of fresh tracks in the dirt. On each side of it there was nothing but vast fields of grass, occationally interrupted by a patch of trees somewhere in the distance. When he looked along the road he found it to have a long days travel, if not more, before it reached a place with proper houses (or what ever the people of this world lived in).

"Well, my guess is that we should go into the forest, crazy as it may sound," Riku said after a moment of thinking through their options.

"But the sign clearly says there are bandits in there!" Hermione objected.

"Technically," Donatello cut in, "it only says to 'beware' of them. It could be a trick to keep people out, you know."

"Then let's _stay_ out!" Hermione argued and flapped her wings animously. "I don't want to risk walking into a trap and a bloody fight with some cut-throat thieves and robbers if I can avoid it!"

"Then stay here and keep watch over the Stargate," Riku said matter-of-factly. "I won't force you to come along, but I'm going in there. It's the only place that seems logical to examine here and we've got to start somewhere."

In the end, Hermione gave in to the choice of the majority and followed her fellow travelers into the forest, her wand out and at the ready as soon as she managed to figure out how to use her new "fingers".

They walked on for an hour without finding anything strange about the place, except for it being so empty of "people". There were birds singing in the trees and they all noticed a few bugs here and there, but not a single creature looking even remotely close to being like them.

"Maybe heartless got here first and took them all?" Donatello tried.

"No. If the heartless had done so, this world wouldn't be here still. And I would know if heartless were around, which they would be if that was the case," Riku commented with a frown. "No, this place is simply…"

He was cut off by the sound of arrows coming towards him and before he could move, he found himself pinned to the closest tree, with an arrow at each shoulder of his vest and one each on either side of his pants. Blinking with surprise he stared at the direction whence the arrows had come and saw a red fox standing at the ready with a bow and yet two more arrows strung to it. The archer was wearing a green linen shirt and a three-pointed, yellow hunter's cap with a feather in it on his head.

"State your business here and I might just let you pass without demanding a toll," the fox said in a serious tone of voice and as Hermione moved to cast a disarming spell, the two arrows flew directly at her, pinning her sleeve, and with it her arm, to another tree.

"And please don't do anything rash, will you? I prefer getting this business over with swiftly and I don't wish to harm any of you."

Riku noticed how their opponent had strung his bow once again while he talked, all in one flowing motion of his hands, without his eyes ever leaving them.

"We mean no harm to you either," Riku said and pulled himself free from the tree, taking out the arrows one by one. "We're travelers seeking to help those in need of our help in battleing the darkness."

The archer raised a furry brow and lowered his bow slightly. "Darkness? Do you mean those weird shadows that's been sneaking around in Nottingham?"

Riku nodded, feeling both glad and sad that the archer knew about the heartless. This meant they were needed and that they might just get away from this situation without having to use violence and by the looks of it, this fox was just as good with the bow as Donatello was with the bo-staff.

"They are called Heartless," Riku said and tossed the archer the arrows before he went over to get Hermione's arrows as well. The fox caught the arrows without lowering his guard. "We have means to get rid of them and last we heard, they were spotted in this area."

"Are you telling the truth?" the fox asked causionsly. "You're not just trying to get away without paying the fee, are you?" he added with a sly smile.

Riku tossed him the last two arrows and called forth the Magic Kindom keyblade.

"I'm telling you the truth. This weapon is the only thing able to harm them permanently, and even if I am lying, I have no means to pay any fee at all, be it a fair one or not."

"Well then," the archer said with a smile and lowered his bow, "why didn't you say so to begin with? I only take from the unjust and rich. Poor people need all that they can get."

Hermione was about to say something about not being poor, but changed her mind as Donatello gave her a small shake of his head in warning.

"Robin Hood's the name," the archer introduced himself with a mock bow. "Lawless, bandit, king of thieves and self-proclaimed hero of the needy. And who might you traveling warriors be?"

"I'm Riku, wielder of the keyblade and defender of the light. These are my friends; Donatello, the shadow warrior and Hermione the wise, supreme user of magic and spells," Riku said, using the titles given to them by Aslan, finding it only fit to add some force to their names in the same way that Robin had done when giving them his.

"Well then, Riku, Donatello and Hermione," Robin said, looking at each of them in turn, " welcome to the Sherwood Forest!"

Robin proved to be a fighter for the good side and told them all about the situation in Nottingham, a small town that was situated next to a castle close by to the forest. The king of the land was currently on a crusade of sorts, having left the rule to his younger brother, Prince John. But the prince was a horrible character in love with money and power, doing his best to make the people pay him all they owned in taxes of various names. If they couldn't pay, they were thrown into jail to work off their dept. Robin Hood and a few allies had made the Sherwood Forest their refuge and did what they could to take the stolen money back to the poor who needed it sorely. Now, to add to this mess, the Heartless had started to show up only a few days ago, causing havoc amongst not only the poor, but within the castle walls as well. Robin had managed to get his beloved Maid Marian out of the place a few days ago, and from what she had told him, the heartless had done something to the Prince.

"It's as if he's become a different person," Marian said, her eyes wide with fear at the memory. "It's not like he was a good person to begin with, but after the shadows appeared…" she shuddered with discomfort, "…he changed. He got worse and it was as if he had no soul left."

"She's right in that," Maid Marian's friend and lady-in-waiting, Lady Cluck noted. The large, blue-dressed hen leaned forward and patted the vixen on her back. "I never liked that thumb-sucking pile of greed, but at least he had his moments every now and then when he could show a bit of soul in his act. But it is as Maid Marian says; those things did something to him and he's completely deprived of what little soul he had."

Riku nodded and only needed to look at his companions to know they've come to the same conclusion; the good Prince had probably been taken as a host to a Parasitic Heartless, just like the King of Cats and the White Witch.

"We need to stop him before he gets any stronger," Riku said and turned to Robin. "Can you help us make up a plan to get into the castle and confront him face to face? All I need is to get him into a battle with me and I'll figure out how to free him of the Heartless inside of him. That should take care of the biggest problem and after that the small fry will be easy to deal with."

Robin nodded. "I'll work something out. But when should we do it? By day or by night?"

"As soon as possible, and preferably by day, but if the breaking into the castle is easier done by night, that'll have to be the route to take. I trust you to know the best way to get about this."

"Leave it to Rob, he's a blessed genious, ya' know," the large bear named Little John said and gave his comrade a playful jab on his arm. "This one time he managed to strip the prince of clothes and jewelry down to his undies without him noticing it before we left the scene."

The comment demanded the story to be told, and at its end it made all of the gathered release a much needed laugh. The tension of the moment ebbed out and they could plot the break-in in a more relaxed manner. Robin wanted to engage as few people as possible in the act, mainly to keep it swift and as invisible as possible. Donatello, Hermione and Riku were all given choices, seeing as they were the main reason they were planning this to begin with. But apart from them, Robin decided only to bring Little John and himself. A lot of the other men in the band objected to this, as did Marian, but Robin held fast.

"I won't risk more lives than what is utterly necessary, my love," he told Marian calmly. "And I have good faith in Riku and his friends."

"But you'll need someone to, to keep watch and stuff outside the walls, won't you?" a small boy rabbit said, pushing his way too big hunter's cap up from his eyes and lifting up a bow with one of his hands to show it for all who watched. "I could do that!"

Robin gave the rabbit a wide and hearty smile and patted him on the shoulder. "I thank you, Skippy, but you're needed here at the camp, you know. Maid Marian will need someone to keep her safe while I'm away."

The rabbit started to look a bit sad, then gave Marian a look as if to check the value of Robin's words. When the vixen gave him a soft nod of her head in confirmation, he stretched his back and took on a proud look. "Then I'll stay here and do just that, Robin. You'll see, I'll make a real good job!"

"Doubtless," Robin chuckled and shared a secretive eye-wink with his beloved who smiled just as warmly as he did.

Riku realized that this fox was a very kind character indeed and a loving leader. All of his men listened to his words and trusted him. They all wanted to have him safely back and he wanted them safe as well. It was easy to see why he had been chosen to lead this band of outcasts. He was the perfect leader. His ability to draw people to him and make them trust him was almost magical. It made Riku think of another person with the same ability and his heart suddenly sank in his chest. Sora had always been able to draw people to him and he cared for all around him with all of his heart. At least, that was how he'd used to be, before the whole Heartless-story.

Riku shook himself awake from the sad memories as he noticed Hermione and Donatello looking at him with concern. He would save Sora from what ever darkness that had taken him over and things would go back to being easy and normal again as soon as the Heartless were dealt with.

Robin started to go over the plan for the break-in and they all listened carefully to his words so as to not forget any important details and leaned in to see better as he drew a map of the castle on the ground before him.

"We will have to do it by night, this night preferably. Riku, I'll have you come with me on this side…"

A swift arrow downed one of the guards without a sound and yet another arrow took out the second one before he had a chance to call out the alarm. Riku and Robin went over the castle wall quickly and snuck into one of the guard shelters to hide from sight.

"Ok, first step accomplished," Riku whispered. "Now to the tricky part."

They had used a rope to climb up and as they'd got themselves over the wall and Riku had done as instructed and collected the rope in question in order to use it later on. Little John, Donatello and Hermione were to take out the guards on the other side of the castle, and when ready, Hermione would light her wand up with a green glow for a short moment to give them a signal that the coast was clear. While Riku waited for the signal, Robin held an eye open for unexpected guards coming along the catwalk. When the green glow lit up some moment later, Riku gave Robin's shoulder a tap and the fox slid over to the other guard shelter, with Riku following him closely.

Robin pointed at a high and narrow opening in the tower standing closest to the wall. It was an arrow's slit, used in order to keep an archer safe from being hit, while he could shoot arrows at the enemy. There was a slight gleam of metal in the shadows behind that opening and Robin put an arrow to his bow. With one swift movement he raised himself up to stand in the open, making himself a wide open easy target, then shot his arrow. Beyond all possible chance, the arrow hit its target and they could hear a helmet falling to the ground. They didn't have much time now before the remaining guards would notice their trespass.

Hermione and the others met up with Robin and Riku at the middle of the castle wall, close by the main tower where the Prince had his quarters. Donatello was to go with Little John and see to that the remaining prisoners of the dungeon were freed, while Robin, Riku and Hermione were to get themselves to the Prince and try their best to face him in battle. So far all was well and things had gone according to plan, but should the Heartless turn up at the wrong moment they would be forced to abort the plan and retreat. At least that was what they had decided to do.

"This is way too easy," Hermione muttered, her eyes darting this way and that in nervous expectation for enemies to jump them. "How come there are so few guards? And not a single Heartless?"

"Shhh!" Riku hushed as they snuck up a spiral staircase. "We'll have to deal with it when it happens," he mouthed to her once they stopped at a floor to look down the dark hallways before they continued up the stairs.

Robin had his bow out and an arrow cocked and ready leaving only for him to aim and shoot should it be needed. Riku had called out his keyblade as well, the Magic Kingdom key gleaming like a sword in the flickering light of the few torches that were placed in evenly spaced holders on the walls. Hermione had her wand at the ready and kept looking back over her shoulder in order to see if anyone - or any_thing – _was following them.

They did how ever reach the royal chamber without trouble and stopped momentarily outside the door to gather their breath. Robin nodded to Riku, and the keyblade wielder opened the door slowly. Hermione had a protective spell on her lips, the wand held high and as the door swung open with a loud creaking noise she released the spell and followed Robin and Riku inside in a rush.

The force field Hermione had magically produced only a second before cracked with a loud crushing sound as it was hit by a blast of dark power the very moment they entered the room. Before them stood a black beast of a lion, reeking with darkness. Its yellow eyes glowed with madness as it stared at the intruders and as it roared, the last remains of the magical shield fell and the trio was thrown onto their backs.

"That's… the prince, I suppose," Riku noted and heaved himself up on his feet as fast as he could.

Robin stared wide-eyed at the monstrousity before them. "But, how?" he asked, gaping as he aimed at the beast with his arrow.

"The heartless has taken him over completely," Riku replied and charged the keyblade with light. "I'm guessing he was an easy enough victim."

Hermione hurried to cast yet another spell of protection while the beast heartless simply stared at them.

"What's he waiting for?" she asked once the magic shield was up.

Riku shrugged. "I don't know. Re-enforcements perhaps."

Robin suddenly swung around and released an arrow into the shadows in the corridor behind them. The arrow struck its target; a guard who'd scrambled himself up the stairs to check what was happening in the royal chamber.

"I'll deal with the guards then," Robin said as he picked out a new arrow from his quiver and cocked it on the bow.

Riku nodded his agreement and lashed out at the beast with a _Strike Raid_, mostly to see what it was capable of enduring. The heartless prince roared in anger and opened his jaws wide. Inside his mouth, dark light was gathering in a massive orb of sorts, growing in size within seconds. Riku grabbed his returning keyblade and summoned up all of the dark energy he had within himself at the moment, sweating with the effort and raised his hand just as the lion bit down on the orb, and released it like a cannon ball bristling with energy and hissing as it went through the air. It crashed through the magic shield, the magic shattering as the object went through. Hermione tried to come up with another spell to use, but Riku stepped infront of her and managed to counter the attack in the very last second, releasing his own darkness to create a _Dark Shield_ that without problem withstood the projectile and sucked it into itself. As the Dark Shield vanished, Riku felt a stab at his chest. He had spent a lot of power on protecting them and calling forth the darkness took a huge strain on his body even in calmer situations. This hasty act could have rendered him uncunscious had he not dismissed the shield when he did. He cursed under his breath for his own stupidity and readied the keyblade for another attack.

Hermione sent off a green blast from her wand, pushing the beast back a few steps as it got hit. Grimacing, she went through all her known spells in her mind in hunt for one more powerful. A glance at Riku told her that he was reaching his limits rather fast this time around. She figured he still hadn't quite recovered from the battle in Narnia. He was too careless using his powers and didn't seem to really care about what happened to him as long as he got the job done. Biting on her lip she aimed her wand towards him instead of the beast heartless.

"_Vulnera_ _sanantos_!" she called out and the healing spell hit Riku with a green shimmer. He blinked in surprise, but nodded his thanks before he released another attack with his keyblade.

"LION'S ROAR!" he called out and a white beam of light rushed out from the tip of the keyblade, taking the shape of a lion's head with its jaws wide open. It hit the Heartless hard in the forehead, shoving it straight into the wall behind. But as the attack finished, the lion simply roared in anger, shaking his head as if to rid himself of some nasty bug, then roared once more in Riku's direction, sending both him, Hermione and Robin flying to the floor.

"Blast it! That's the strongest attack I know of and he just shook it off!" Riku gritted his teeth in pain as he tried to get up on his feet again. He'd hurt one of his ankles in the fall and was unable to put any weight on it.

Hermione cast another healing spell to mend the wound, but they had barely enough time to get out of the way as the lion charged.

Riku got the keyblade up in front of him and managed to force the lion away from them with a blast of light through the weapon. Quickly he changed to the Full Metal key, the bars of it setting into motion almost instantly after it appeared in his hand and as the handles grew out, he swung the blade into the air and preformed the _Circle Ceremony_ attack as fast as he could, sending red circles of piercing light straight at the prince. But the lion gave off a humming sound that built up a wall of dark smoke around him, rendering the attacking circles harmless as they crashed against the smoke instead of hitting the true target.

Clenching his jaw Riku shifted weapon again into the Magic Kingdom, sending it out charged with light in the _Lion's Claw_ attack, but with the same result. The smoke protected the lion in its midst. Refusing to give up, Riku shifted to the Way to the Dawn and released an _Ars Arcanum_. Golden light blasted at the target as Riku hit down on it, but with seemingly no effect. He barely managed to dodge a large black paw that slashed at him from inside the smoke. He glided back into a defensive position and changed blade again, this time the Cat's Eye materialized in his hands, gleaming silver.

"Let's see what you can do," he mumbled, and tried to calm himself down enough to sense the keyblade's inner abilities. He realized he'd not tried this blade out entirely before. Suddenly the eye at the junction between blade and hilt started to glow with an intense green light that traveled all over the blade. Riku aimed the keyblade at the Lion within the smoke and with a small add of his own light into the blade, a beam of green shot out from the top of the weapon and went straight into the smoke shield and with a hissing sound like water poured onto a hot rock, the green light flashed out and the smoke around the lion was suddenly gone. The lion roared out his anger and charged at Riku, but Hermione sent off a powerful blast with her wand, sending the beast crashing into a wall.

Riku shifted to the Full Metal key once again and the _Circle Ceremony_ was sent off within a minute, the red circles hitting their target full on as he tried to get up on his paws. Riku finished the attack and changed blade again, this time going back to the Magic Kingdom key and he released the Lion's Roar as soon as he'd summoned up enough light energy to make it powerful. With a howl of pain the lion before them was sent into the wall once again, the bricks cracking with the pressure.

"Uhm, Riku, not to disturb you or anything, but there are Heartless in the corridor," Robin Hood suddenly said and with a gasp, Hermione turned around and sent off a series of spells to keep the crawling shadows at bay.

Riku rushed forward to hit the lion straight over the forehead where he'd noticed the Heartless crest that marked the entrance the Parasite Heartless had used as it took the host over. The keyblade flashed with golden light as he raised it, but the moment he would have hit the target, a black arrow hit the keyblade and got him off track, making him hit straight into the wall instead. The force meant to crush the crest instead broke down the rest of the cracked wall, opening the room up to the cold night air. Riku managed to keep his balance just enough to step out of the way as yet another arrow flew straight for him. Now it continued straight out into the night instead.

The lion Heartless took this moment of confusion to lash out at Riku with a paw and hit him squarely in his abdomen, smacking the air out of his lungs and sending him flying through the room to land hard on the royal bed. He thanked all his possible luck that the bed had a soft mattress, but it still had felt like hitting hard stone. Gasping for air he tried to get up from the bed, and saw that Hermione and Robin were both fully occupied with fighting off smaller but not any less vicious or dangerous Heartless. He also saw the source of those black arrows from before. There were new Heartless types mixed in the mass of ordinary Shadows. A tall and slender one with one arm ending in a bow kept close to a short and fat one carrying a quiver of black arrows. The Archer Shadow simply took an arrow from the Quiver as it reached one out to it.

Suddenly an icing chill filled Riku's arms and he yelled out in pain. He had been caught by a Heartless crawling down the wall behind him and onto the bed. It now held on to his arms with a firm grip, stopping Riku from turning around or even shaking the attacker off. He tried calling for the keyblade, but the heartless holding him seemed to be cutting off his connection to the weapon. Cursing under his breath Riku decided he had only one chance to get away before his heart was taken or the Lion charged at him. With a growling scream he released all the light he could muster, making it form a blue tainted white glow around his entire body. The white glow disintegrated the Heartless behind him and he was finally free to move his arms. In an instant he called forth the Way to the Dawn keyblade and held it up against the uncoming attack from the lion. The beast was pushed away by the mere strength Riku used in his swing of the blade, enforced by the light he'd released.

"Let's end this!" Riku roared and shifted the blade once again into the Magic Kingdom. He forced himself to calm down and opened up all of his light powers to fill the keyblade with it as fast as possible, then sent it flying in the _Lion's Claw_ attack. The keyblade rushed through the mass of heartless at the door, dealing with each new wave of them and releasing Hermione and Robin from their tedious fight for a moment. But the lion had got back on his paws again and was charging for Riku with the yellow eyes practically burning. Riku rushed forward, keeping his link to the keyblade while he simultaneously gathered light in the palm of his hand, hoping beyond all hope that this attack would work as well with light as with darkness. Throwing himself towards the oncoming lion he raised his hand at the beast and let out the Light Blast with as much force as he could summon without losing the link to the keyblade which still fought the Heartless at the door.

The lion roared with pain and staggered away backwards, oozing darkness in big wafts of smoke, then fell out through the opening in the wall with a yelp. Riku, Hermione and Robin rushed to the hole to look for the lion. It landed in a roll on the courtyard far below, lit up by a mess of burning haystacks and sheds and what-not. The courtyard was a confusion of battle between heartless and the castle inhabitants as well as the recently freed prisoners and in the midst of it all, Donatello and Little John fought as best as they could to protect the non-heartless in the crowd.

"That doesn't look too good," Robin noted and tied one end of the brought rope to an arrow.

"We need to get down there fast!" Hermione said.

Riku called back his keyblade as he felt his light powers being on the brink. Robin fired off the roped arrow, hitting a wooden pillar of sorts down at the courtyard. The other end he quickly tied onto an exposed pillar in the thrashed wall. He took his cap in his hands and turned to Riku and Hermione.

"Get on this now or we won't make it at all!" he said with desperation in his voice and jumped up, caught the rope and with his cap as protection for his hands, he slid down the rope in a dangerous speed.

"Well, no time to argue really," Riku said. "After you."

Hermione gulped. She may have had wings, being an owl and all, but she wasn't ready to try her flying ability just yet. She took off her necktie to use as protection for her feathery hands before she followed the fox down the rope. Riku simply took the keyblade in both his hands, one hand at the hilt, one at the blade, using the weapon as a means to glide on the rope.

As he landed roughly down at the courtyard, Riku realized that he had used up almost all of his power, both light and dark up in the royal chamber. He didn't even have enough in him to call forth Rapunzel to replenish his light.

"Hermione, I might need your help."

"Really now? And when did you realize you can't do everything on your own?" Hermione retorted as she sent a spell throwing a batch of Heartless into the air.

"I have no power left in me. I need magical refilling, do you know how to do that?" he replied ignoring the comment and slashed with his keyblade at a Heartless coming too close for comfort.

"In a moment!" she brought out her _Very Useful Book_ and asked the question quickly, then read the reply. "It'll take too much time!" she said with a panicked expression. "I can't do it while the Heartless are getting at us."

"Then I'll just have to fight until I've got some more in store I guess," Riku said with a scowl and rushed forth, swinging the keyblade before him and clearing the path for him and his friends. The only problem with his plan, he realized, was going to be him avoiding to directly fight the prince while he still tried to gather up some power.


	45. Part 2: Chapter 28a Monster Within

**Part 2**

**Chapter 28a: Monster within**

_"__One day I'll introduce myself and you'll see you've not yet met me"_ (Alanis Morrisette, _Straight jacket_)

"Hey, he's awake!"

Sora blinked in disbelief as he looked up to see Luffy's smiling face. The pirate looked a bit shaken, but unharmed. Suddenly Will was there next to him. The small teenage girl's red hair was disshevelled and her face was marked by worry, but other than that, she seemed to be ok as well and Sora felt a great weight lift from his chest as relief filled his body.

"You…" Sora mumbled, the words sticking in his throat as he sat up and simply threw himself at his friends, pulling them close to him in a tight embrace. Luffy and Will both stiffened in surprise, then relaxed and put their arms around him as well.

"I looked everywhere for you …" Sora said as he finally managed to get his voice to work again. "I was so worried… I thought…"

"Hey, those are our lines, dude!" Luffy interrupted him with a wide smile and pulled free from the hug. "When we found out about you being here, we ran over just to find you unconscious! You had me bloody worried there!"

"Me too," Will filled in, giving Sora another hard squeeze before letting him go. "Jak and Daxter told us all about what happened. You were pretty lucky those two found you when they did."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. They saved my life for sure."

Will and Luffy took turns telling Sora about how they'd ended up in Spargus as well. They'd managed to find each other before the storm had gotten too strong and had stuck together, trying to find Sora. When the storm had faded, they'd found themselves more or less being at the gates of the city and a group of guards had taken them into custody while their fate was being discussed. When Jak had brought in Sora, he'd asked some of the guards if they'd seen any strangers, giving them a description of Will and Luffy. Once it was cleared that Will and Luffy indeed knew Sora, Jak had made sure to let them come see him.

After getting some food and a much needed wash-up, Sora found himself wearing a new outfit, given to him by Jak, since his old one had been more or less soaked in dark eco. He was a bit sad over the loss of his large red pocket-bags, but apart from that he wasn't too uncomfortable in the new clothes. A pair of sand colored baggy pants going down over his calves, a pair of heavy black boots of sorts with silver buckles and a broad tan leather belt around his waist also sporting a silver buckle covered his lower regions. He'd gotten a sleeve-less red shirt, two shoulderguards made up of a bone-like metal fastened with strips of tanned leather crossing his chest and back, and on his hands he now wore dark blue fingerless gloves that simply covered his hands and nothing more. It felt odd wearing the strange shoulderguards, but they were surprisingly light and he figured he would get used to them rather soon. He preferred wearing them to not doing so, since every bit of extra protection available was welcome.

Will had been offered a more suitable outfit in the heat of the desert as well and had welcomed the off-white long baggy shorts and dusty green sleeveless top. Luffy on the other hand was rather content with wearing his ever so worn shorts, west and straw hat. But he had managed to get himself an extra serving of food while his friends got their new outfits on.

Once the trio was ready, Jak brought them along to what proved to be the royal palace. At the throne room - a vast stone hall of sorts that sported clear water pools scattered in a decorative manner along with some desert plants – they were told to stay put by the entrence while Jak and Daxter went up to the podium where a large stone throne was placed. In said throne sat a mountain of a man, dark skinned and heavily muscled, with one emerald green eye and one made of red glass and metal. All over his body he wore an armor made up of what looked like skeleton parts of large animals. Sora noticed that the metallic sheen on the bones matched the shoulderguards he himself now wore and with a jolt of memory he realized that the animals in question from which these things came had to be nothing else but metalheads. He shuddered in post-fear as he remembered the horrifying beasts.

The large man on the throne was at the moment giving his full attention to a man standing next to him, talking about something that seemed to be grim matters, if the expression in both mens' faces was anything to go by. But as soon as Jak got close to the throne, the dark man turned his stern face towards the green-blond and at once the features softened into a hearty smile. The man who'd been talking to him turned as well and as he spotted Jak, he bowed deep in his direction and left the room with a few quick words muttered to the man on the throne.

"Jak, my friend! What brings ya' here chilli peppers?" the large man boomed out and got up on his feet. He crossed the distance between them in two giant stewps and gave the younger man a hard, bone-crushing squeeze before letting him go.

"Good to see you too, Sig," Jak said in reply as soon as he got some air back in his lungs. "Are you that bored of this place?"

Sig grunted and crossed his arms over his massive chest.

"Bored? I'm starting to wish you'd never given me this job. Too much talkin' and too little huntin' action!"

"Aww, but you're doing a splendid job!" Daxter put in with a wide grin on his furry lips.

Sig looked over at the trio by the entrence and nodded in their direction.

"Now who may these be? I haven't seen them here before."

Jak made a wave at Sora and the others to come over and join him before he answered.

"This is Sora, Will and Luffy. Sora was attacked by metalheads and I brought him here to recover from the dark eco exposure he suffered. Will and Luffy ended up at our gates yesterday and were given refuge due to the sandstorm. It turns out they all know eachotehr and had got themselves separated and lost in the storm."

Sig inspected the trio with a curious expression. "And I'm guessing you wish for me to let them stay here without going through the trial?"

Sora, Will and Luffy all looked at one another with worried eyes at the mentioning of this "trial" and Sig let out a hearty chuckle as he noticed.

"I don't think they are a threat to us," Jak said calmly. "And to be frank, those trials are mainly done to test the will of those claiming to wish to join our forces. It used to be a way to determine wether or not the new comers would be probable to betray us. As much as I understand that system and respect it, I can't see why it should still be in use. Spargus should be a haven for those in need, not a door slamming in their faces."

Sig looked at him with his one natural eye un-blinking, his face clean of all emotion for a moment as he considered what had been said.

"It's really not all that simple to just by-pass the rules, ya' know," Sig said after a while, then smiled. "But if you're ready to take on any objections to this, I can't see why I shouldn't allow this."

Jak nodded. "I'll take full responsibility for this. If anyone has any objection, I'll talk with them."

Sig laughed at this and slapped a large hand at the back of Jak's shoulders.

"I bet no one will be too eager on taking you up on that challenge. You would've made your father proud, ya' know."

Sora noticed how Jak winced, but the grimace was covered up quickly with a smile.

"I take it we get to stay," Sora said slowly and got an approving nod from Sig.

"That's true alright, chillis," Sig said and put his hand out for Sora to take. As Sora put his hand in his, the large man squeezed his hand tight around Sora's and shook it hard.

"But cause even the slightest of trouble for me or my man Jak here, and you'll be facing my old peace maker within a blink. Got that?" Sig said through his wide grin before he released Sora's slightly crushed hand.

"Got it," Sora said meekly as he massaged his hand and wondered what in all the worlds this "peace maker" of Sig's was.

"I hope Sig didn't scare you," Jak said a moment later as they all walked out of the palace and into the sunlit streets of Spargus. "He's really a nice guy. "

"Nah, no worries," Luffy replied for all of them with a wave of his hand. "I think he's awesome!"

"He's a bit intimidating," Will admitted, throwing another look back at the stone palace. "But he seems to have a good heart."

Jak smiled appreciatively at this. "Yeah, that about sums him up I guess."

"The Sigster's one mean enemy, but he's a great guy to have on your side in a pinch, if ya'get me," Daxter added and jumped down from Jak's shoulder where he'd been perched for the whole visit in the palace.

"So, I take it he's the king of this place?" Sora asked as they entered the market. Jak nodded, but said nothing as they made their way through a small group of people crowding around a small stand.

"So why did he say _you_ gave him the job?" Sora continued, determined to find out what he could about this place and the way of how things were done.

"Well, duh," Daxter cut in and leapt up to land on one of Sora's shoulderguards. The sudden addition of the ottsel's weight almost unbalanced him entirely, but he managed to stay on his feet none the less. "that's because Jak's the _real_ king here."

Luffy and Will both blinked in surprise and confusion, while Sora stared at Jak, who merely rolled his eyes heavenward at the mentioning of his title.

"Dax, just let it go, will ya'?" Jak said with a sigh.

"But you are! If Damas had known you were still alive, he'd never assigned Sig as his heir in the first place and you had the chance to take the throne when Sig found out, but nooo, you had to go and be all noble about it and let him have all the glory of kingship!"

"Spargus is better off with Sig than with me, and you know it too, Dax," Jak objected, then smiled wickedly. "Besides, you're in no position to talk about making bad decisions, you know."

Daxter blinked and Sora felt how a shiver went through the small animal's body. "That has nothing to do with this," the ottsel objected. "I really wanted these pants and I'm pretty much pleased staying fuzzy, thank you."

Jak suppressed a chuckle and shook his head.

"So it's true then? You're really the real heir to the throne?" Will asked as they started walking again.

Jak nodded. "Yeah, in some strange twist of fate, that's the way it is. But Sig's a much better man for the position. I'm a warrior: I fight the battles, I don't plan them and I certainly don't avoid them."

Suddenly a scream broke through the everyday sounds of the market, soon followed by other screams and Sora was running towards it even before he realized what he was doing. Jak had started off at the same moment as well and only a few steps behind him Sora spotted Luffy and Will rushing through the crowd as people tried to get away from the very spot the five of them, counting Daxter clinging to Sora's shoulder, tried to reach. They soon got to an open area close to what amazingly enough proved to be a seashore at the outer parts of the city. Down in the sand on the small strip of beach a woman was trying to run away from what looked like a large, deformed Neo Shadow, galloping after her on all fours. As she was cornered by yet another heartless appearing in front of her, she threw what looked like a large wrench that she'd been carrying in her hand, right at the thing in front of her. But the tool simply went straight through the creature and landed with a soft thud in the sand behind it.

Sora called forth the keyblade, and as it appeared in his hand he charged it with power without pausing to take in its new shape. Daxter finally lost his grip of the shoulder guard and landed in a roll behind Sora as he rushed past Jak. Sora threw the keyblade off in a _Strike Raid_ as soon as his feet touched the sand and he got within range of the closest heartless. The creature turned into black dust as it got hit, a crystalline shape of a heart hovering for a moment in the air as the keyblade returned to its owner. Sora took no time to wait for a better angle, but threw the weapon again at the other heartless just as it was about to jump the woman it had been chasing. It was a straight on hit, but it merely made the creature fall onto its back instead of rendering it completely defeated. Sora gritted his teeth in disappointment as the keyblade returned to him and rushed forward changing keyblade into the Demon Fang. He charged it with light, letting the attack build up power as he rushed past the surprised woman and placed himself between her and the heartless. Just as the strange heartless came at him in another attack, firing off a purple-black light from its mouth, Sora released the _Backlash Wave_. The thundering tornados of power swirled around the heartless, whipping up sand in a powerful storm and as the attack hit the target, flashes sparked out of the sand clouds as the heartless' darkness clashed with the light of Sora's attack. Suddenly the sand settled and all that was left of the heartless was a whaft of black smoke and a crystalline heart floating into the air before disappearing.

Sora huffed with exhaustion and leaned heavily on the keyblade which he'd stuck into the sand to support himself. The battle had been short and intense, but he had used up way more power on one heartless than should have been necessary. Something was wrong inside of him, that much he could discern, but what it was would be a riddle to solve later on he decided.

He stood up straight and lifted the keyblade to rest on his shoulder as he turned towards the others who were gathering around the woman he'd just saved. She was of a rather thin build, her shoulder length hair was dark blue at the roots, but turned a deep green about midway to the ends.

"Kiera, are you alright?" Jak asked as he got to her and she nodded, then turned to Sora.

"This guy here came just in time. I don't know what those things were, but apparently my tools didn't do a damn thing to them. His weapon did though."

"Yeah, well it's more or less designed to do that. Take care of the heartless I mean," Sora replied, trying to sound indifferent and relaxed despite his weariness.

"Heartless?" Keira asked and both Jak and Daxter looked at him askance.

"Those shadow things that attacked you just now, they were what I call heartless. They live off people's light. If they get to you, they take away your heart and turn you into one of them."

"Were there only those two?" Will asked, looking around warily." They usually come in groups larger than that."

Luffy, not in the least minding the unfamiliar crowd, stretched out a hand and grabbed a hold of a tall rock formation some way behind Sora. He let the rubber-effect in his arm then pull him speedily away to land on the top of said pillar. Once up there, he took a look around and shrugged.

"I can't see any more of them from here," he called out to them before jumping down into the sand and jogging up to Sora.

Jak, Daxter and Kiera stared at the pirate in disbelief of the thing he'd just done with his arm, and Will hurried to explain as good as she could how it was that Luffy had his abileties, while Sora shook his head at said pirate and took a good look at the surroundings as well.

Suddenly all of his senses went on edge. The hair on his arms and neck rose and he could feel something like a tingle of electricity in the air. A few seconds later, the familiar smell and feel of darkness filled the air around him and he switched into his new keyblade as he readied himself for the attack.

"Guys, there are more of them and they're coming our way pretty soon," he called out in warning to his friends and soon he noticed out of the corner of his eyes a bright flash of light that signified Will's transformation into the magical Guardian.

Sora took a moment to study the weapon in his hand while he tried to pin-point the direction from which the heartless would soon appear. The keyblade he now held had a long hilt, fitted for two hands and wrapped with some soft material reminding him of silk. At one side of the hilt there was a handle in the shape of a white wing reaching from the bottom of the hilt to the junction of hilt and blade. At the bottom of the hilt there was a light pink crystalline heart to which the keychain of the rainbow-striped heart he'd got from Rarity was connected. The blade itself was a sparkling white metal. Around the blade the wrapping of the hilt was outstretched in one long spiral that at the second turn changed from soft fabric into a multi-colored glass that reached around and up over the top of the blade to form the key-head: a cleaving of the glass into its six separate color-stripes. The top point was a pale violet, the next dark purple, followed by sky blue, pink, orange and lastly a pale yellow. The glass shimmered and sparkled as he filled the weapon with light and Sora felt warmth spread into his body from the keyblade. It made him feel calm and safe.

_Harmony Heart,_ he thought. That was the keyblade's name and he felt it respond to his thoughts with a new flow of warmth.

Suddenly he spotted the dark shadow on the ground that he'd been spying for and with a short call of warning, he rushed forward. Within a minute the beach area was full of heartless.

"Will! Luffy! Help Jak and the others! I'll deal with the big ones for now," Sora called out to his friends and slashed through a Neo Shadow before spinning to the side and hitting another one straight in the chest. He rolled to the side to avoid a responding attack and hit the next heartless close to him from below, cutting it in half.

Through the gaps between the shadows surrounding him, Sora saw Will incinerate a group of ordinary Shadows, while Luffy busied himself shoving more of them her way while keeping others on a good distance away from Kiera who stood behind his back with a mixed expression in her face of both fear and annoyance. Sora guessed she didn't like not being able to do anything. He cut through two heartless at once and tried to spot Jak and Daxter. A loud crackle of electricity suddenly went off unexpectedly close to him and as Sora turned to look, he spotted the duo at last, although Jak looked somewhat different from before. Instead of yellow-blonde hair with green roots, Jak's hair was now a silvery white, and his skin had turned ashen. Out of the hair a pair of fierce-looking dark grey horns had appeared and as he turned around, Sora saw that the blue eyes had turned pitch-black. The creature that had been Jak pulled up his lips in a growl, showing long and sharp fangs. The air around him crackled with dark lightning. On his shoulder though, the small orange animal that was Daxter held on to the shoulder guard and seemed to be talking to his friend.

Sora spun around, slashing a group of attacking heartless in the process, then called out to Jak and Daxter.

"Do you think you can give me a hand here?"

"Just get the heck out of the thick of this and keep an eye on the eco-blast!" Daxter called back.

Sora didn't waste time asking what Daxter meant. He jumped up high to land on the head of a large round heartless, cut its head off as he took another leap into the air and made a sumersault in the air to land with his eyes facing the mass he'd just got himself out of. The air suddenly thickened as if it was filled with some invisible matter, then sparks of purple started to emanate from Jak in the center of it all. Without warning dark matter flashed outward from Jak in an explosion that pushed the air away from where he was standing. The wave of air hit Sora straight on and pushed him down on the ground hard enough to make him loose his breath. Right after the blow of the air-wall, a wall of darkness spread out and away from Jak. As it passed through the heartless it cut them clean in half like a scythe and Sora scrambled quickly to his feet to get further away so as not to get touched by what ever it was that Jak had attacked with.

Within seconds the area was momentarily clear of heartless. Sora stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at Jak as he came towards him, the monsterous appearance slowly regressing, with the horns being the last thing to leave along with the black in his eyes. When he and Daxter reached sora, Jak was back to his old self again.

"That was… something…" Sora mumbled, trying to find words for what he had witnessed.

Jak looked him straight in the eyes, his blue eyes intense with emotion.

"We all have our dark secrets, Sora. I try to use mine in a good way. Now tell me just what in the name of the precursors has made those things come inside the walls of Spargus?"

Sora gritted his teeth and took a firmer grip on the Harmony Heart keyblade.

"As I said, they live off the light in people's hearts. They automatically go for the strongest light source they can find, and I'm sad to say it, but that sorce is me."

This made Jak and Daxter both blink in surprise for a moment. "You?" Daxter asked, looking more than a little doubtful.

"It's because of the weapon I wield. The keyblade is made up of light and magnifies the light in my heart as I wield it. If I could, I would just throw it away, but as strange as it sounds, this weapon is also the only thing that is able to truly defeat them, and it's attached to me just as much as my hand is attached to my arm. I can't throw it away. So I use it."

"Wait, if that's the only thing that can beat those things, then how come big-dark-and-gruesome here just blasted them all off to the next century?" Daxter asked, giving Jak a pat on the shoulder at the mentioning of the monster he'd transformed into.

"They were harmed, but not killed. They're getting back in pieces as we speak, so I suggest you move out from here while I, Will and Luffy take care of them."

"Jak, listen to him and just for once back down from the fight, will you!" Kiera said as she jogged up to them, her face set in a grim expression. Those things aren't the ordinary metalheads, you know. You can't beat them, but this guy here can. Just let someone else do the dangerous stuff for once!"

Jak sighed, but shook his head in a no.

"I'm statying Kiera. Even if I'm not able to do much, I can still help. You go get the rest of the city warned and tell Sig to keep people away from the beach area."

Kiera looked as if she was about to object, but thought the better of it and turned on her heels to stomp off in the direction of the castle.

"Now then," Jak said and turned to Sora. "What is their weakness?"

"Light," Sora replied with a shrug. "As much as they hunt for it, they can't take it in a head-on attack. Make your own light into a weapon and you're pretty much safe. As long as you can beat them away fast enough that is."

Jak gave him a crooked smile. "I think I can manage that," he said slowly.

"Good," Sora said and raised the keyblade, "'cause they're back again."

Sora ran past Jak and surged the keyblade with power as he went. He drew the weapon back over his shoulder, then swung it forward as he released the attack. The glass-rainbow at the key-head of his weapon glowed brightly with inner light and left a trail of bright colors in its wake. The trail of light broadened as it went away from the keyblade, then broke free from the weapon and slashed at the group of heartless standing closest to Sora. All of them went up in smoke as the _Rainbow Blade_ went through them and as Sora watched, the blade of light traveled through yet another group of heartless before it vanished itself. He'd taken out about twenty enemies with one blow. That was kind of useful.

He charged the blade anew but was interrupted by a new type of heartless coming up before him from the ground. He smashed his weapon down in its head just to buy himself enough time to get away from it and jumped backwards as the large creature shook its head to get rid of the annoyance that the Harmony Heart key had caused it. The heartless was large, a bit bigger than a Neo Shadow and a lot more muscular, but the arms were just as long as its legs and sported needle point talons. It also had a long whip-like tail, swishing visciously behind it as it readied itself to launch at Sora. The head was all sharp angles, the yellow eyes slitted in an evil expression enhanced by its large mouth decorated with a generous set of black, needle-point teeth. The over-all color was a dark purple, but at the middle of the heartless' forehead was a yellow gemstone.

Sora swore under his breath. This heartless was shaped with a metalhead as a model. Not a good sign. Not good at all.

Sora managed to roll away from the attack in the very last moment before the Metal Heartless landed on the spot where he'd just been standing. He kept charging the keyblade, but the beast confronting him was always there to interrupt him before he could get enough light into his weapon in order to set off a strong enough attack to take it out. All he seemed able to do was to dodge the blows and run away.

Suddenly he spotted a blue shimmer in the corner of his eye and as he spun around to look while avoiding yet another blow from the Metal Heartless, he saw Jak in the midst of the light. Only this time he wasn't the monster from before, who'd been fueled by darkness. This time he was something else entirely. His whole body was glowing in a pale blue color, while his eyes were entirely white and from his back grew large, oddly shaped wings of blue light.

_Just how many shapes does this guy come in?_ Sora caught himself thinking before realizing that it wasn't much weirder than his own ability to use Drive Forms. This made him think about a possible solution for his lack of speed against the Metal Heartless chasing him.

He dashed away to avoid a blow from a talon decorated fist and tried to spot Will in the chaos of the battle ground. Unfortunately she was very much occupied helping Luffy to maintain the heartless within the area of the beach. Jak made a good result in doing the same on the opposite part of the field, moving sometimes so fast that it seemed as if he'd stopped time entirely between his getting from one position to another.

_I'll just have to deal with this on my own then,_ he decided and tried to sense the magnitude of his magical reserve. It wasn't too good, but way bigger than he'd thought to begin with. He figured the Harmony Heart had somewhat to do with it and sent it a thought of gratitude. He'd never really used any of his drive forms without using a magical aid before, but he figured it shouldn't bee too hard to manage, even though it might not last as long without help as with it.

_But it will last long enough to matter_, he thought and squared his jaw in determination. He slashed a few ordinary Shadows when they got in his way and rolled to the side to get further away from the Metal Heartless as it came after him in full speed. It missed him by a hair and turned clumsily in order to chase after him while Sora ran as fast as he could to put as much space between them as possible before he started the transformation.

_Here goes…_ Sora let his mind connect with his light, focused on the new form and it's special abilities. When he felt certain he'd gotten the image of the form right, he released the power from within and in a flash of light his clothes changed color into an all-over blue with black and white details shaping a pattern of ice-blue flames in the fabric at the sleeves. He felt a surge of magical power around his feet and hands showing in a mist of blue and white ice crystals in those areas. The Harmony Heart keyblade now hovered just beside his hand in a spinning motion instead of being trapped in his grasp. Sora grinned wide when he realized that the Wisdom Drive transformation had been a success and glided across the battleground in high speed as if on ice instead of sand and rock. He charged the keyblade up faster than before and spun around to face the Metal Heartless, aiming the loaded keyblade at it as it came thundering towards him.

Sora leapt up and with an unimaginable speed he shoved the keyblade down into the ground as he released the new attack. A flash of light blasted out from the spot of impact and turned into a large rainbow circle that spread out over the battle ground, hitting the Metal Heartless first of all and turning it into dust within a second. The _Sonic Rainboom_, as the attack named itself in Sora's mind, eliminated just about every heartless in the area apart from a few Metal Heartless standing at it's very edge before it disappeared. Sora felt more or less drained of energy, but with the intention to finish the job he skidded across to the place where he'd seen the remaining Metal Heartless.

Half way there though, he felt a sudden stab at his chest, in the scar over his heart. The pain made him trip mid-skate and as he rolled to the ground, he heard Will call out for him, at the same moment that he felt the change come.

_No…_ he thought in panic and tried to fight off the change as it came, tried to break off the flow of his magic to his Drive Form. But something was wrong. Something stopped him from reversing the Drive in time and he felt the cold of darkness spread from his feet and up. _Not this! Not again!_

Somewhere inside his inner mind he thought he could hear a victorious laughter.

His skin turned soot black, his clothes shifted from blue to pitch black with deep purple details as black smoke started to ooze off his skin. Sora saw with fear how the tips of his fingers turned into pointed claws and felt his teeth grow into fangs. He closed his eyes and screamed as his consciousness drifted away to leave room for the darkness and as his eyes opened again they were yellow, glowing and soulless.


	46. Part 2: Chapter 28b Battle Within

**Part 2**

**Chapter 28b:Battle within**

_"__/…/what kind of comfort can I give to you at the best? I don't know where I'm supposed to stab, when the demons live inside your chest." _( _Breathe _/ "Andas" by Loke Nygård, roughly translated from Swedish)

Will stopped in the air as she saw the speeding transformation of Sora before her. She heard Luffy curse out loud behind her and from the other side of Sora the light form that was Jak had stopped in his movements for a moment.

Will had trouble believing her eyes, but none the less, Sora was turning into something looking very much like a Heartless beast right in front of her. One minute he'd been skidding along the ground in high speed, using some power she'd not seen before, and in the next he'd fallen over and turned into… this. The thing that had been Sora looked up at her with visciuos glowing yellow eyes and hissed, before grinning wide in a show of sharp fangs. The smoke oozing off him grew thicker and suddenly he moved. He set off running fast on all fours, moving irradically towards the Metal Heartless that at the moment were gaining on Jak.

Daxter bit his lower lip in panic as he tried to think over their possibileties. Sora had somehow turned rather nasty and dark and he figured that dark eco had to have somewhat to do with this. But how would they turn him back? Because they _had_ to turn him back or else the Heartless would have nothing that could truly stop them, if Sora had been right in his explanation of how they worked. Jak had gotten a pretty good result using his light powers against them, but just as Sora had predicted, it didn't kill them, just hurt them.

"Hey, Big Guy, I think that Sora dude is in deep trouble," Daxter said, pointing out the obvious mainly in a need to speak rather than as an effort of enlighting his buddy of the situation. Jak had seen what happened and was, judging by his expression, thinking through his options.

Before Jak could do anything though, the Dark Sora creature leapt past them and smashed into a Metal Heartless that had been on the verge of slamming into Jak from behind him. Blinking in surprise, Jak made a quick decision and moved to give another one of the beasts a whopping while Sora dealt with the one he'd crashed into.

Clawing, biting and wrestling with all his might against the Metal Heartless, the Dark version of Sora violently tore the the beast apart in a confusion of black mist. As the Metal Heartless dissolved, Sora's body soaked up the darkness until only the crystalline heartshape was left to hover to the sky. The Dark one roared in triumph and sped towards the last of the three beasts, finishing off this one in the same manner as the first one, only faster.

Jak blasted the Metal Heartless with light and sent it sprawling over the sand. Just as he was about to move in on it again, Sora moved in before him and attacked in a wift swirl of black mist. As the Metal Heartless was defeated, Sora turned around, raising himself up on his feet to stand straight, grinning visciously at Jak.

"Err, Jak, buddy? I think we should move away…" Daxter suggested and Jak nodded his agreement, though he didn't exactly move in the direction Daxter had wished for. With a fast move to slap his hands together, Jak slowed down the flow of time around him and used his wings to jump up and fly a little distance in order to land behind Sora. As time started to move in its original speed again, Jak grabbed the Dark thing that was Sora from behind, trapping his arms against the side of his body and pressing Sora's back against his chest, making it hard for him to move.

Sora growled and hissed, twisting hard in a try to break free from Jak's firm grip, but the light being behind him was stronger. Jak squared his jaws in concentration and little by little, he transferred the light eco in his system over to Sora. Sora froze in his tharshing movements and went rigid as the light power gradually defeated the dark form. As Sora finally was back in his original form, he slumped over in Jak's grip and went limp, his strength leaving him.

Jak, now back to his usual self, put Sora down on the ground slowly, before falling to his knees himself in exhaustion. Luffy and Will had got themselves over to them by now and with worry plain in her face, Will knelt down next to Sora and checked his pulse in lack of better ideas as to what to do.

"He seems alright for now," she said after a while, leaning back to look at Jak's tired face. "Thank you for helping him."

Jak shrugged. "He helped me first. If he hadn't slammed into that Metal Head look-alike Heartless when he did, it would have taken me fair and square. I simply returned the favor."

Daxter rolled his eyes at the notion and muttered something under his breath about some people being too nice for their own good.

Sora blinked and looked up in confusion at Will who instantly bent over him as she noticed him waking up.

"Wha… What happened?" Sora mumbled. It hurt to move and he felt sluggish and powerless.

"I don't know," Will replied honestly. "Sora, you changed. You turned into… something…"

As Will trailed off, Sora's memory kicked in and filled out the missing words.

"You looked like a raving mad Heartless, dude!" Luffy said, his usually smiling face sporting an unusually serious expression.

Sora sluggishly moved to sit up, then looked at his friends one at a time, starting with Will and stopping at Jak and Daxter.

"I… Did I hurt anyone?" Sora asked slowly as he tried to remember what had happened from the point of his transformation to the present.

"Not if ya' don't count the Heartless," Daxter said. "Those ya' killed right off."

Sora stared at the ottsel in disbelief. "I… I _killed_ the heartless? But… how? I mean… That's not possible…"

"Well, you did," Will ensured him, her big brown eyes suddenly filled with something looking close to admiration. "You went right for them and even saved Jak when doing so."

Jak nodded his confirmation of this when Sora turned to look at him.

"It's true. Although I don't know how much of it you did with good intentions, you did end up taking care of the remaining Heartless."

Sora put his hands to his head as he tried to clear his mind. This didn't add up. The dark form was a mindless beast that attacked practically anything moving, regardless who or what it was. He knew from experience that while the darkness ruled him, he was more or less a Heartless, body and mind. With this in mind, he knew that all pointed towards him having been more likely to go for Jak, being the most light-emitting thing in the vicinity right then, than to go for any of the Heartless who would offer him just about nothing as prey.

_Nothing except for darkness_, he caught himself thinking and shuddered in sudden discomfort.

"I don't get it…" he mumbled more to himself than to any of the others.

"I'm guessing the Dark Eco you absorbed before must have got into your system somehow," Jak said in a calm voice. "Unless you have another explanation?"

Sora was torn between letting Jak's explanation finish the discussion nice and easy, or telling all of them the terrible truth of it – that he himself was the source of the darkness that had escaped. That his short time as a true heartless had left him not only scarred, but tainted as well.

"No," he said finally and shook his head. "I mean, the eco certainly could have eased the transformation process, but it didn't exactly cause it." He swallowed hard and refused to look at any of his friends while he spoke. "That dark thing I turned into, it's not a new thing. It's happened before, a few times." He paused to grab at his chest, right above the scar, as it started to ache.

"You mean that this happens because of what happened when you got that scar on your chest?" Will asked, her voice calm and without a single trace of the resentment or fear that Sora had expected to hear. He looked at her and in her eyes he saw sincere worry for him.

"Yeah. When Kairi brought me back from being a Heartless, some of the darkness stayed inside of me, and some part of myself was lost with the action as well. I haven't figured all of it out yet myself, but I know that this thing is way beyond my control. Once it takes me over, I have no saying in what it does." He looked at Jak. "I'm only glad that for once that creature decided to take on the dark things before it went for the light ones. Even though I don't understand why it did."

Jak hummed his liking to the conclusion and got himself back on his feet, before leaning towards Sora, reaching out his hand for him to take. Sora grabbed the offered hand and was pulled up on his feet and soon he found himself using Jak's shoulder for support while they walked back towards the city square and the previously quickly vacated market tables and stands. Apparantly Kiera had done a good job of telling people to get away from the scene.

Jak summed up the happening to Sig a few moments later and the guards were ordered to patrol the city in order to keep a look-out for the Heartless. Sora made it clear to Sig that the guards were not to engage in battle with the shadows should they spot them, but to warn citicens and get them away while letting Sora and his friends know where to go. Sig had been a bit hard to convince that Sora was the only one able to fight off this new and strange threat, but after some talking to Jak he agreed on the plan easily enough.

"Is there any way to stop them from coming here at all?" Kiera asked later on in the evening while they were having a rather modest dinner back at her place. They had learned that she usually had her quarters in another city, called Haven, but that she came out to Spargus every now and then to visit Jak and Daxter and to help with things of mechanical origin. When in Spargus, she lived in a small apartment connected to a large garage of sorts that contained a huge pile of metal junk, car parts and other whatnots of mechanical interest. Daxter had let them know that she was in fact not only a childhood friend of his and Jak's, but also a rather brilliant mechanic and inventor.

"Apart from taking them all out with the keyblade?" Sora said in response to her question and nodded. "Yeah, there is one way, though it's not always that easy to achieve."

"Spell it key-boy," Daxter demanded and stared him down from the opposite side of the table.

"I need to find the heart of the world and lock it with the keyblade. Once it's locked, the Heartless can't get into the world."

"But what unlocked it in the first place?" Kiera wondered, more or less thinking out loud and not really expecting an answer.

Sora shrugged. "I honestly don't know. But I do know that locking it works."

Luffy looked down at his empty plate and started to reach out for what was left on Sora's, but Will who sat on Sora's other side caught him in the act, smacking him on the hand and shaking her head.

"Sora needs food too, Luffy. Don't be rude," she reprimanded him and the pirate leaned back in his chair to sulk.

"You're almost as bad as Nami," he muttered and glared at her sideways without giving any explanation what so ever as to who this Nami was.

"So what world do you come from?" Jak asked, setting his eyes on Sora, who almost choked on the food he'd just started to chew.

"E-excuse me?" he said as he tried to calm his racing heart.

"You know about those Heartless from before, even though we've never heard of them, and you have this weapon to fight them, not to mention your friends here with their most unusual talents," Kiera said matter-of-factly and smacked away Luffy's extended rubbery arm that had been trying to sneak a piece of meat off her plate.

"We sort of figured that you're not really from around here yourselves," Jak concluded.

"Well, that makes some things a bit easier to explain," Will said with a relieved sigh and Sora nodded slowly as he started to relax.

"As you guessed, we're not from this world, but it doesn't really matter where we come from. What you need to know is that the three of us have been traveling between different worlds for some time now in order to fight back the Heartless and the darkness that comes with them. If we were to fail to save a world from them, it would get swallowed by the darkness completely and nothing would remain alive. More or less."

Daxter huffed and put on a cocky expression as he leaned over to tap at Jak's arm. "Lucky for you then that the big guy here is an expert on saving this place from such things."

Jak gave him a stare that made the ottsel shrink back to his place with a small yelp. "Not really," Jak commented on what his friend had said.

Sora smiled at the interaction between the two friends. They made him think about how he and Riku used to squabble in a similar way when they were younger. It was easy to tell that the two sitting opposite him at the table were very close as friends. Remembering how Daxter had stuck to Jak's shoulder during his transformation into that monster of Dark Eco earlier made it even clearer. They seemed to be as close as brothers, if not closer. _Like me and Riku_, Sora thought later that same evening. "_Before all of this started_". With a sigh he laid himself down on the bed he'd been given. Sora and his friends had been offered rooms at the palace and before they could turn down the offer, Jak had convinced them that they should accept an offer when it came from Sig.

Banishing the melancholic thoughts Sora tried to calm down enough to get some sleep. But no matter how he turned in the bed or how many deep breaths he took, he couldn't fall asleep. This time it wasn't nightmares he feared. It was the darkness lurking inside of him and what it might tell him, should he let it speak to him in his sleep. So instead he settled on watching the night sky through the bedroom window while listening to Luffy's loud snoring from the other bed.

When dawn came, Sora got himself out on the streets of Spargus, trying to find enough calm in his mind and heart as to find a trace of where to look for the Heart of this world. Jak was most definitely the person in this world connected to the Heart, which led Sora to believe that he'd find the Heart close by. This in turn would also explain why the first Heartless attack on the world had come here.

He walked slowly through the market place, looked carefully into each alley and jogged a few rounds down at the beach to make sure he knew the layout of the grounds. But he couldn't sense anything about the Heart's whereabouts, which made him feel a bit disappointed when he finally gave in to his hunger and returned to the palace. The evening before, Sora had with a few words managed to explain to Jak, Daxter and Kiera just what a world's Heart was. They had offered to help him find it and since he figured it couldn't make anything worse, he'd let them do their best in the matter. The fact that he more or less had come to the conclusion that only a keyblade wielder or someone connected to the Heart had even a remote chance of being able to sense it, or even find it, he kept to himself.

When Sora went on his fifth turn on the beach that day, he was tired of the whole thing. He knew this world had to be bigger than this, but after questioning Jak he'd come to realize that the most probable spot for the Heart was, just as he'd suspected, right here in Spargus. He kicked at the sand and watched the small grains scatter into the water near by, glittering in the sunlight. Jak and Daxter were taking a tour around the city's outer walls in one of the cars, together with Luffy. Will and Kiera had taken the task of searching through the palace and looking into old documents of the place in a try to find any clues in case the Heart had been discovered before. Further up the hill next to the beach, Sora spotted a man of the guard walking with alert eyes, looking this way and that with movements that told Sora that the guy was frightened by what had happened the day before.

Sora kicked the sand once more for good measure and decided to go to the man and try to calm him down, when he noticed a faint glimmer in the sand where he'd just kicked. He bent down and pulled what proved to be a small orb free of the soft dunes and looked it over as it lay in his hand. It seemed to be made of some sort of metal, half of it a bright red, while the other half was sparkling white. He turned the small object over in his hand and noticed a marking crossing over from the red to the white. A bit of dirt had clung to the spot and when Sora rubbed it away, he saw that the marking was in fact a yellow lightning bolt.

"A summon?" he muttered in surprise and squeezed the hard ball tight in his hand. A responding wave of warmth going from the object and into his hand told him his assumption had been right. It _was_ a summon. But the way he'd found it, hidden in the sand, told him something more: it had been here for a while and had most probably been drawn towards this place by something else.

The thought made him turn on his heel and with sharp eyes observe the surroundings once more. The heart of each world pulled at the lost lights of others'; that he knew. He put the summoning gem into the small belt pocket he'd gotten from Kiera the day before. He'd put the other summons there as well to keep them close and safe and since he no longer had the large red pocket bags, the small belt pocket would have to do. Slowly he started to walk up from the beach, all the while looking around him carefully. He'd been looking at this area all day and he'd gone around the city just about a dozen times by now, but he figured there had to have been something he'd missed. He passed the market place with his eyes darting from one side to the other and as he got to the palace, he realized there was actually one place where he'd forgotten to look. Slapping his palm hard on his forehead in a need to punish his own stupidity, Sora cursed under his breath and started running towards the palace entrance. The moment he set foot on the stairs leading up to the throne room, he felt a surge of warning go through him and a most unwanted presence made itself known to him.

"Heartless," he muttered. "Of course."

He called forth the Harmony Heart and started in a sprint up the stairs and soon enough he heard the call of the guards and the sound of gunfire coming from the room up ahead. Before he reached the room, Will came running through the corridor at the top of the stairs, with Kiera a few steps after her.

"I know!" Will said before Sora had a moment to tell her about the situation and she stopped momentarily to pull out the Heart of Kandrakhar from its hiding place inside her top.

"Unite me with my power!" she called out to the jewel pendant and in a flash of light the Guardian Will stood in her place already charging up the electrical power of her element. Sora called out to Kiera to contact Jak and get him and Luffy over to the throne room, then bashed in through the door with Will following right behind him.

Well inside, Sora noticed that the room was quickly filling up with crawling Shadows and in the center of the mess stood four large Metal Heartless; glowering at the few people that were trapped in the room with them. Sig stood on the seat of his throne with a large and very intimidating gun hefted up on his shoulder aiming for the large beasts. Next to the throne stood a guard who more or less looked as if he was going to collapse in a bunch of nerves, staring at the spreading darkness around them. All over the floor guns and pieces of armor was spread out and Sora realized that there had probably been a few more soldiers there only a few moments ago. Now they'd joined the dark ranks, which made the remaining guard's reaction that much more understandable.

"Sig! Guns don't work on these things! Get yourself out of here and leave the Heartless to me!" Sora called out to the king of Spargus. The muscle package that was Sig didn't lower his gun for a second, but he nodded quickly in a confirmation that he'd heard Sora's words.

"Then ya' better make a way out for me, chilli pepper," he boomed back, his deep voice not showing any trace of fear or doubt. "And make it quick, or this will turn ugly."

Sora charged the keyblade and Will flew up to hover above the center of the room, straight over the heads of the four Metal Heartless that now had discovered Sora. Will's entire body crackled with pink static and in another moment she set the energy free, frying most of the Shadows in the room to a crisp and causing the four large beasts to fall to the floor in cramps. Sora rushed forward in the same moment as Sig moved towards the doorway, carrying the remaining guard with him over his shoulder. He gave Sora a wink of his one real eye as they passed eachother. Sora grinned wide in response and decided that he really liked that man. Turning back to the problem at hand he swung the keyblade in a wide semi-circle before him, sending out the _Rainbow Blade_ towards the Metal Heartless in front of him. One of them turned to dust, but the other three were saved by the blade vanishing right before it could hit them as well. Sora cursed under his breath. His magical reserve wasn't as good as it had been the previous day and now the Shadow Heartless that Will had burned were starting to regenerate themselves. If he could manage to produce the _Sonic Rainboom_ he would most certainly clear the room of all Heartless in a heartbeat, but he knew for certain that he'd never be able to do the heavily magical attack without going into his Wisdom Drive form. And even though he could use Will's help this time, he felt a firm stop in his mind concerning the very thought of using any Drive Form ever again. He simply had to make it anyway.

Just then, Jak rushed into the room together with Luffy and as the two worked as a distraction for the remaining Metal Heartless, Sora switched blade into the original Kingdom Key since it craved less energy to get fully charged than any of the other blades. He filled it up with energy and sent it flying in an ordinary but yet effective _Strike Raid_. The thrown and spinning keyblade hit each of the three Metal Heartless squarely in the head before returning to him and as it did he shifted it into the Bear Claw, charged it and sent off a shower of light-created spikes that pierced the Metal Heartless' arms and legs and went out to hit a large number of the other Heartless as well. He shifted keyblade again into the Demon Fang, hefted it double handed like an ordinary sword and swung with all his might, aiming for the joints between neck and skull on the closest Metal Heartless. With a surprisingly moist and icky sound, he slashed through the thick skin and mucles of the creature, having been lucky enough to hit the exact spot where the beast had no armor. The head went off and in a puff of smoke the Heartless vanished, leaving behind it a mist of darkness and a disappearing crystalline heart.

Sora halted for a moment, trying to draw his breath as his skin started to sting and tingle all over. Panic made his heart race in his chest and he fell to his knees, unable to stand up straight all of a sudden. Then he understood. The darkness left by the Heartless, it wasn't just the ordinary shadow matter – somehow the Heartless he'd killed had not only imitated the form of a Metal Head, but also it had adopted the creature's body composition, enhancing its strength through the channeling of Dark Eco. And now he was standing in the midst of a mist of the stuff.

A sudden blast of blue light cleared the mist around him and Sora looked up to see Jak standing beside him, his skin the pale blue/white of his light form and his eyes glowing white as he turned to look at Sora in turn, silently seeming to ask him if he was alright.

"Thanks," was all that Sora manged to get out of his sore throat. He struggled up to his feet and called the keyblade he'd dropped back into his hand.

"It seems those Heartless things have a taste for the dark stuff too," Daxter commented from his usual spot on Jak's shoulder.

"Yeah," Sora said, his voice still sounding hoarse. "Go figure."

"You alright Sora?" Luffy called out with a worried voice and Sora gave him thumbs up before returning his attention to the battle. There were still two more Metal Heartless left to deal with and a lot of ordinary shadows and Neo's and Big Ones… Sora felt drained of energy, but tried hard to ignore it.

_I'm all they've got against these things,_ he thought desperately as he gave the Demon Fang what he could of his light powers. _I can't back down now or they'll be finished._

They'll_ be finished?_ A cold voice suddenly harrumphed inside his head. _You and me both will be gone and dead if you don't get a grip on yourself! Not to mention everybody else._

"Leave me alone," Sora whispered between tight lips and swung the keyblade in a wide arc, releasing a wall of power that blasted outwards to vanquish most of the smaller Heartless, but missed the Metal Heartless with only a few inches.

_Would if I could,_ came the witty reply. _But since I'm restrained to being inside of you, I can't. Unless you let me take over._

"Never." Sora felt something close to a growl come out with the words. His entire body was shaking with rage he realized and it terrified him in the same time as it made him feel strangely pleased.

He swung the blade once more and this time he hit one of the two remaining Metal Heartless. He rushed forward to get closer to the one that had gotten away and readied the keyblade for another attack as he went. The sting on his skin reminded him of the lingering mist of Dark Eco that was still there in the place where the last Metal Heartless had been destroyed. He winced but rushed on, not daring to stop in case he'd simply fall over from the exhaustion that he now felt in his every limb.

_Screw this, you'll die if I don't do something about it_, Sora heard the darkness inside of him as if moaning in annoyance and suddenly something cold seemed to cover his skin. He looked down on his arms and realized his skin was starting to turn a pale shade of grey.

"NO!" Sora stopped in mid-step, panic clear in his voice as he tried to find a way to break off the change coming over him, but he had no chance at all. Terrified he watched as his fingertips curled into claws, how his skin started to ooze with a dark mist as the grey color turned a deep pitch black. Fangs grew in his mouth and he felt as if something was trying to take over his mind as well.

_Don't do this! No!_ Sora screamed inside of his mind to the creature breaking through.

_Don't be such a wuss, _the Dark one replied_._

Without Sora knowing how or why it happened, he could now see through the eyes of the Anti Form and he could move his arms out of his own free will, but he was still transformed, with darkness swirling around him in thick wafts.

_How…?_

_Don't just stand there you dumbass!_ The Dark one called out to him with what seemed to be a strain in the voice. _I can keep the worst of this thing in check for a while but not long. Now just use the darn power before I lose the grip!_

Sora decided that he had to deal with this strange new twist of things later. Right now, he intended to do just what he was told to do and use the advantage suddenly given to him. Bending down to stand on all fours, Sora suddenly felt a surge of power in his entire body and rushed forward, attacking the Metal Heartless relentlessly with claws and fangs and a raw muscle power that he had not even reflected upon to be there. The Heartless roared with a screeching sound much similar to that of the Metal Head he'd encountered in the desert and as Sora pushed a clawed hand straight through the thick armor of the creature's chest and pulled out its content, the Metal Heartless turned into a cloud of Dark Eco and shadows. Grimacing with slight disgust, Sora released the crystalline heart and watched in wonder as it soared into the air and vanished. For some reason it seemed he could defeat the heartless just as efficiently in this form as if he'd used a keyblade. He felt the Dark Eco soak into his skin and snarled at the sting of the stuff, then turned slowly around to look upon his surroundings and determine whether or not there were any enemies left. His yellow eyes stayed upon the horrified face of Will as she stared straight back at him.

_Oh, crap._ Sora thought, grimacing in sudden pain and buckled over, grabbing at his chest in a futile attempt to ease the piercing feeling that stabbed at his heart as the Dark Eco worked its way through his system.

_This dark stuff is AMAZING,_ the dark one said with glee and chuckled inside Sora's mind. _Just look at the control it gives me._

Sora twisted in cramp and fell flat to the floor, letting out a sudden blood-chilling scream as the feeling of his heart being ripped into pieces filled his chest.

"SORA!"

It was Daxter's voice, and it was close by. Sora tried to wish away the darkness and pain, tried to turn around on the floor and tell his friends it was nothing and that he was alright, but all he could seem to do was clutch at his chest with claw-like hands, ripping and tearing at the clothes and skin to get the thing hurting him away.

_This might hurt a bit_.

Sora was surprised to hear Jak's voice inside his mind, and as he in pure shock opened his yellow eyes, he saw the light being that was Jak, stand bent over him. With a swift move, Jak pushed Sora down to lie on his back, forced his hands away from their clawing at his chest and then pinned him to the floor by using his own weight upon Sora's arms and legs.

"Hang in there, dude," Daxter said from somewhere close by Sora's head.

Jak suddenly sprouted the wings Sora remembered seeing before and started to glow brightly.

Sora hissed at the light stinging in his eyes then screamed as the Light Eco forced its way into his Dark Eco-infected body. The pain was horrible, but gradually it faded, as the Light Eco for the third time drove out the darkness in his system. He felt the Dark one inside of him retreat and saw how the blackness on his skin disappeared as well, before Jak finally let go of him.

With a slap of his hands, Jak turned back into his ordinary self, the light being banished for the moment. He helped a numbed and almost unconscious Sora to his feet, throwing one of Sora's arms over his shoulders and holding the keyblade wielder close to him with the aid of his free arm slung around Sora's waist.

Will and Luffy, who had been standing close to them for a while, both tried to offer their help in getting Sora to a safer spot, but Jak shook his head at their offers and started walking towards the throne.

Sora blinked and saw the stone chair before him as Jak lead him towards it. There was something odd about it, he realized. A glow… Then he understood what it was and without thinking about it, he raised his hand towards the throne, called the Kingdom Key to his hand and as the keyblade flashed in place, a beam of light instantly went from the tip of the blade to the throne, blasting into a wall of light that suddenly materialized a large keyhole framed by a blue and silver glow, here and there touched by a firey orange color. The sound of an old fashioned lock turning was heard and with a clank, the keyhole disappeared and Sora smiled with relief.

As the energy that he'd used left him, Sora dropped the keyblade to the floor, the weapon crashing loudly onto the floor before vanishing and just before he fell unconscious, he heard someone call his name.

_Kairi?_ he thought, then dismissed the hope that had flared with the idea. _No, not Kairi._

A name, unknown and yet familiar, brushed by in his memory and touched his heart.

"Aqua?"


	47. Part 2: Chapter 29 The Shadow Man

**Part 2**

**Chapter 29: Shadow man **

_"__The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."_ (KH, Sora's dream)

Mama Odi proved to be just as blind as she'd said and using the make-shift pumkin/torch as a stick to find her way, she slowly took them to her place. Her home was a tree-house of sorts, looking much like a large boat that somehow had got itself stuck in the top of a tree that had to be just about the largest tree Kairi had ever seen. Astrid had made a comment about it looking like a petrified dragon of some sort, but Kairi never got to asking her about what she meant before they had to occupy themselves with getting up and inside. Even Louie crawled up with them, after a few motivative calls from the two frogs.

Once inside, they all could smell something cooking and while the old voodoo-shamaness stumbled giddily over to a large python slithering towards her in greeting, Kairi and Astrid took a curious look around. Hauru wrinkled his nose at the smell.

"What is that?" he asked, turning to Mama Odi, who by now had wrapped her pet snake around herself and cooed with it as it rubbed its head against her in an affectionate manner.

"What's what?" Mama Odi asked in return, turning to him with a devious grin on her almost toothless mouth.

"The smell," Hauru clarified to her.

She sniffed in the air curiously, then dashed over to a large bathtub standing over a simmering fire in the far end of the large room.

"Oh my rattles! The gumbo!" she burst out in a slight panic, grabbed a large spoon that was leaning against the tub and started turning it in the bubbling, red brew that filled the tub. Tiana suddenly hopped forward, quickly followed by the rest of the gang. The small female frog hopped up to sit at the edge of the bathtub, put a finger in the brew and tasted it.

"Hmmm, not too bad," she said, smacking her lips. "It's a bit burnt, but a few shots of Tabasco and you should be able to save it."

Mama Odie's snake somehow had understood the directions and had quickly slithered off to fetch the mentioned ingredient, which was now poured into the brew a few drops at a time, until Tiana gave a sign for it to stop. The result was to her liking and as Mama Odi tasted the gumbo herself, she gave up a joyeous cry and grinned wide.

"Now _dat's_ a gumbo with some sting in it! Ya' really know yar' stuff, dearie."

Tiana blushed slightly and as Kairi went forth to have a look at what the fuss was about, Mama Odi simply shoved a spoon of the brew into her mouth without warning.

"'Dis'll give yar' sore heart some beating fire into it, lass!" the old woman said and shoved another spoon into Astrid's mouth as well. Hauru managed to dodge a spoon going his way, but Mama Odie's snake had for some reason slithered over to his other side and as he dodged the snake's master's serving, the snake used its tail to shove another spoon into his mouth.

"Gumbo's the food of the heart, me dearies!" Mama Odi proclaimed and the rest of the gathered gang got their fair share of tasting as well before she was pleased.

Kairi swallowed hard. The stew was somewhat on the far spicier side of the scale and she felt her tongue curl from the heat of the spices. Oddly enough though, as the food was swallowed, she got a taste in her mouth that told her of a very rich flavor hinted with something sweet mixed with something salty and juicy. It tasted… good. And oddly familiar. She felt it warm her from the inside out and judging by the looks on the others' faces, they had a somewhat similar experience.

"This really does taste good," Kairi said and turned to Tiana. "You must be very good at cooking and stuff."

"Well, I hope to get myself a restaurant of my own soon," she admitted proudly. "That is, if I can get hold of the money needed for it and get turned back into my old human self before the end of the Mardi Gras parade," she added, looking a bit more sullen.

Mama Odi suddenly clapped her hands to get their attention. "Now then people and animals gathered; what could it be that ye' need from me?" she asked, holding the large stirring spoon like a cane in front of her.

"I want to become human again!" Tiana said with force.

"Ditto," Naveen added.

Louie grunted a series of strange sounds that Mama Odie seemed to somehow understand, seeing as she nodded slowly to what he said, as if taking mental notes.

"And ye' three then?" she asked and turned to Kairi, Astrid and Hauru all in turn.

Kairi blinked. "Well, I…" she mumbled, a bit shocked that the old woman had expected her to have a wish for her to fulfill. _Sora!_ Her mind seemed to call out, her heart aching at the thought. _Riku. My home._ "I guess I want to find a way to defeat the Heartless. For good I mean."

"Toothless," Astrid said, short and precise. "And Hiccup. I want the dragon and his rider back with me. Not that I think it's something you can do anything about though."

"A way back home," Hauru said slowly, almost reluctantly as the old woman turned her blind eyes towards him.

Mama Odi shook her head slowly and sighed. "None a' ye' knows what ye' need, only what ye' wants!"

"Potato, potatto," Naveen huffed. "They're not the same thing? What you want and what you need… what's the difference?"

"_Everything_, ma' dear froggie," the old woman replied with an important ring to her voice. "What ya' need often gives ya' what ya' want without ya' even knowing it. Ya' need ta' dig a little deeper into yer' souls an' hearts, dearies and then you'll find out what ye' _really_ want."

"Dig deeper? Seriously?" Astrid said doubtfully. "Nothing I have inside of me can, as far as I know, bring me my home, family and friends back just because I finally figure out my inner wishes!"

Mama Odi suddenly smacked the pumpkin from before on Astrid's head; the dried fruit making a surprisingly robust sound as it hit the Viking. Astrid yelped and backed away a few steps.

"Look into yer' heart, beastrider, and you'll see what I mean. Ya' want yer' friends back, but they've never really left ya'. Ye' can find the way back to them by following the path you've taken dis far and by choosing yer' battles. Yer' time will come, be so sure."

Astrid blinked as if in sudden realization, but kept quiet.

"And you, Mr. Gator," Mama Odi said, turning to the alligator, " ya' should stop tryin' ta' be somethin' yer' not an' appreciate what ye' have. Be yer' self and the solution will come to ya' in due time." Louis looked a bit gloomy by this reply to his wishes, but nodded in understanding. Kairi was surprised by how the old lady seemed to be able not only to fully understand the animal's talking to her, but she somehow could make herself understood as well.

"And you," Mama Odi said, turning to Naveen who was standing closest to her at the moment, "ya' dream of living a rich life bein' free, but you've been free all along. What ya' need is to open yer eyes to what riches ya' have close at hand and yer' happiness will come along just fine."

Naveen seemed a bit confused at first, then looked as if he understood her perfectly, nodding. Kairi noticed how he gave Tiana a quick look when the female frog didn't see him looking and started to understand the advice herself, smiling softly.

"Now, you, lass," Mama Odie said, turning to Tiana, "yer' father was a rich man in his heart, having all he needed and all he'd ever want. You're daddy's girl for sure and what ya' need stands at yer' door, if ya' only dare to open it and have a look, taking a pause from all the hard work that keeps yer' heart away from yer' need."

Tiana looked truly confused, Kairi noticed, but nodded and smiled anyway, probably making her own translation of the advice.

Mama Odie then turned to Hauru next. "Mighty magician as ye' are, you've forgotten the magic that brought ya' this far. The road back home goes through yer' heart an' only you can lay its track. Follow yer' heart an' it'll lead ya' back."

Hauru's pale face was free of emotion, but Kairi thought she saw a glimmer of understanding in his blue eyes. Suddenly the old woman turned to her, giving her shoulder a shove with the pumpkin. Kairi expected her to ramble on about her not knowing what she really needed, just as she'd done with the others, but the woman only stared blindly at her for a moment then sighed deeply.

"Yer' heart's a light place haunted by dark thoughts, lass. Ya' want ta' find the solution to the darkness around ya'? Then rid yer' self of the darkness inside ta' begin with! Listen to yer' heart girlie! What does it tell ya'? Go find that boy of yours before it's too late!"

Kairi blinked in surprise as she understood the message. She'd felt as if she'd been striking at her enemies blind-folded and here a blind woman had suddenly given her the tools to take away the blind-fold. Her own worry for Sora and Riku had caused the light in her heart to flutter and shrink, making it harder for her to see what actions to take and what direction to turn. The message was clear. "Don't worry over things unknown and focus on what was important." If she found Sora and Riku, they would be three instead of one and the heartless would be easier to deal with once she had the others' support. To get there, she needed all her strength and her strength was her light as a princess of heart.

"Thank you," she said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Mama Odi chuckled. "Don't thank me yet, honey," she said, then shoved something into her outstretched hand that gave her a bit of a shock. She looked down upon the two objects in her hand; one crystal star attatched to a thin, green wine of sorts, and one crystalline marble of sorts with a deep purple color, veined here and there with black.

"This is…" Kairi started.

"I figured those belong to ya'. Got a hold of 'em out in the bayou earlier this week. Now ya' may thank me," Mama Odi said with a mischevious grin.

_A keychain and a summons crystal at the same time?_ Kairi thought in wonder. There was no doubt about what the objects in her hand was and she felt the warmth spread from them and reach her heart, filling her with new strength as she put them away; the summon in one of her belt pockets and the keychain magically transported to the inner light from which her keyblade originated.

They all spent what was left of the night in the home of the voo-doo priestess, resting and making plans for the day to come. The before mentioned Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to take place coming evening in the city next to the swamp, a place called New Orleans. On this parade there would be an honorary princess and king present, the princess being in fact one of Tiana's friends. Since Naveen needed a princess' kiss in order for him (and Tiana) to turn back into a human, Tiana had a plan of convincing her friend to kiss the frog prince before the parade was over by midnight, seeing as how the princess title would go away after that. Naveen and Tiana did their best to describe the city and all that they needed to know about the so called Shadow Man, whom Mama Odie helped bring details about as well. The Shadow Man was described as a thin, dark skinned man who practiced the "dark kind of voo-doo", according to Mama Odi. He had been in control of the shadow demons that had snatched Naveen earlier and he had also been the reason to Naveen's and, indirectly, Tiana's transformations from humans to frogs.

Following morning Kairi hummed with dislike as she thought about the information she now had and tightened the black hair band around her pony-tail. Hauru gave her a questioning look and she shrugged.

"This Shadow Man guy gives me the creeps," she explained honestly. "I'm willing to bet a lot on him being in league with the Heartless here, them being made up of shadows and all. His meddling in this gives me a bad feeling."

Astrid harrumphed and gave her shoulder a rough pat. "Come on! He can't be much worse than any other enemy we've encountered so far. Remember; you took out one of those Hollow Heartless on your own, not to mention that gargantuan one over at Montessor Space Port. I think you're giving this guy way too much credit."

"But you shouldn't take him too lightly either," Hauru said, giving Astrid a look of mild dislike. "He has magic of the dark kind and we don't know what he's capable of if he's also in league with the Heartless and whoever it is that controls them."

"The magician's right, ya' know," Mama Odi added with a warm smile as she walked over to them, her snake fondly slithering about her upper body. "Don't take him lightly, and don't give him too much power in advance by building up yer' fears. Now hurry up an' get goin'! There's a frog in need of a princess' kiss an' a lot more at stake here! Go!" she shooed at the group, waving at them with her old wrinkly hands laden with wrist links and rings.

Both Louie and the little firefly Ray came along with Kairi and the others, and this in turn made it so that once the group retrieved the boat, they had the alligator and the firefly serving as guides through the swamp on their way into the city.

They reached the outer rim of the city late in the afternoon and they could already hear the sounds of the gathered masses over by the road reserved for the parade. The sound of music mixing from different parts of the city reached their ears together with laughter, shouting and the smell of sweets and food. Louis seemed gittery, his tail beating at the ground in tune with the music heard and Naveen smilingly explained the alligator's interest in music to Kairi and her friends.

"We have no time for that now," Tiana said to the alligator, who seemed to sadden a bit at the notion. "We need to find Lottie quickly now and make her kiss Naveen before midnight!"

"And we need to find the heart of the world too," Kairi added grimly. Having explained the matter of sealing the heart away from the Heartless the night before, she knew that the frogs and their two friends would understand what she meant.

"Not to mention the fact that the Shadow Man is probably still looking for me," Naveen added, taking a quick look around them with a sudden insight that the shadows were growing around them as the light of day faded into evening.

"That too," Kairi agreed and picked up Tiana and Naveen to let them ride on top of her shoulders as she climbed out of the boat and onto dry land. It was rather quickly decided that Louis couldn't come along with them into the city, due to the fact that he'd probably terrify the citizens if they spotted him. So the alligator stayed at the outskirts together with Ray, while Kairi and the rest of them entered the city in search for the temporary princess of the parade.

As they reached the parade street though, they realized it would be quite hard to get through the crowd and closer to the wagons slowly passing by with their varying cargo of people and decorations. The parade had started and both Naveen and Tiana were starting to get rather worried they might not find the princess in time.

"She'd have to be at the largest and fluffiest wagon of them all, she usually is," Tiana said, standing on tip-toe on kairi's shoulder in a try to see over the crowd. "She shouldn't be that hard to spot."

Suddenly Hauru seemed to have spotted something and he turned to the frogs on Kairi's shoulder. "Is this girl perhaps dressed up as a bride about to marry someone, because the next wagon in line has to be the largest of them."

"What?" Tiana said in surprise and they all looked over at where Hauru was pointing and indeed, there came a large wagon designed as a wedding cake, on top of which there was what appeared to be an ongoing wedding ceremony between a most princess-like young woman and a very prince-like man, standing before a priest with a very proud-looking man behind them that most probably was the bride's father.

"That's Lottie alright!" Tiana said, staring at the couple as the wagon slowly rolled closer. "But who's…"

"Ai chidanza!" Naveen cried out, interrupting her. "That's me! Or, I mean, the imposter me!"

"Why would your imposter marry Lottie?" Tiana asked, a touch of jealousy in her voice.

"That's of no importance right now!" Kairi interrupted them as she started to make her way through the crowd, using her elbows to brutally push people aside and getting some cursing thrown at her along the way. "What's important is that the Shadow Man probably is behind it and that means we have to not only stop her from marrying that imposter prince and kiss the real one, we have to fight off the Shadow Man as well, because he sure as anything will be rushing to stop us any moment now."

Hauru ignored all rules of secrecy as he heard this and grabbed a hold of Astrid and Kairi both before stepping up into the air, carrying them above the crowd and over to the wagon. "Time is of essence anyway," Hauru said as Kairi turned to him with a reprimand ready on her tongue.

"Well, if he hadn't seen us already, I'm pretty sure he sees us now," Astrid said with a crooked grin as they landed softly on top of the wedding cake wagon, surprising the gathered people on it as much as the crowd that were watching it all happen.

Tiana wasted no time waiting to explain things and jumped over to land right before her friend's feet. "Lottie! Don't marry this guy! He's not the real prince!" she cried out and surprised as she was by the whole thing, the bride gaped at the talking frog. She blinked, then stared first at the sweating, nervous man beside her, then at the frog by her feet, who was now joined by another frog.

"That man, is an imposter! I'm the real prince!" Naveen said.

"T-tiana?" Lottie stuttered as she finally realized who the first frog was.

"Yes Lottie! It's me! You need to get off this wagon now and…"

"How in the name of all bad things did you get here?" the fake prince suddenly cried out at Naveen and rushed forward to capture the frog, but missed him as Naveen and Tiana both jumped up to land on Lottie's shoulders.

"Run Lottie! I'll explain things later!" Tiana said and Lottie only nodded, her confusion still apparent in her face, but still she did as her friend told her and ran to her father who swiftly escorted her off the wagon.

The false prince cried out in fear and rushed after them, pleading for them to stop, quickly outrunned by the priest who had just spotted something far too terrifying for him to simply stay put on his place any longer. Kairi and her friends turned around to see what had sent the priest running and in a flash a keyblade appeared in Kairi's hand. Astrid grabbed her axe and Hauru got himself ready with his magic. The crowd that had watched the parade was now screaming with terror and scattered all over the place as the people tried to get away from a large number of Gator Heartless and demon-like shadows that rushed over the ground followed by a cackling sound in the chilling wind. In the midst of the dark mass a tall man of a thin build walked calmly towards the wedding wagon.

The Shadow Man.

Kairi jumped off the wagon, landing on the ground below with her feet ready to run as she swung her keyblade to slash at the oncoming heartless. She noticed that the blade had a new shape to it. The top was formed as a water lilly with two large petals forming the keyhead. Green vines sprouted from the petals in a curly pattern shaping the prongs of the keyhead, decorated with a row of eleven gold shimmering stars. The vines were also wound around the blade's body and the hilt was covered with soft leaves. Small water lilies decorated the junction of blade and hilt from which a vine-covered handle sprouted, curling its way down to the bottom of the hilt. At the bottom she spotted the key-chain given to her by Mama Odi.

It was a long blade with a good reach and Kairi could also feel how it increased her stamina and magical powers as she went ahead to fill it with light while she ran to face the enemy before her.

"Allow me to introduce myself!" the tall and slender man boomed out, his hands going up from the sides of his body as he made a theatrical bow towards Kairi, who for the moment was held up by yet another Heartless.

"I am Dr. Facilier, at your service," he continued as he straightened himself up, grinning wide as he looked on while Kairi fought off the Heartless. Astrid had jumped off the wagon right after her, but was held back by other foes, as was Hauru, who threw a worried look towards Kairi from where he was standing, doing his best to battle a shadow demon that kept coming at him.

"You may also call me the Shadow Man, as many people tend to do," Dr. Facilier went on, his viciously glittering eyes setting upon Kairi.

"I don't care about your name," Kairi huffed as she finished off the Gator Heartless with a blast of light. "All I know is that you've sided with the Heartless and that's all I need to know. You're with the wrong crowd, Shadow Man!"

With that, she swung her keyblade in an upward slashing motion, and in a burst of sparks long green vines started to rapidly grow from the ground under Dr. Facilier's feet, winding themselves swiftly around his thin figure and squeezing him tightly. But he just grinned wide at Kairi's effort and in a waft of dark smoke, the vines died away and left him unharmed.

"It's always lovely to make a new acquaintance of such grand powers as yourself, keywielder," he said with a sliken voice, swinging the cane he carried in one of his hands slowly before him like a pendulum. "But I'm afraid my business is elsewhere at the moment and I have to run along. Enjoy yourself with my little friends while I have a chat with the prince and princess, will you?"

And with that, his shadow suddenly stretched out from underneath him and took hold of Kairi's feet, pulling at them hard and made her fall backwards down to the ground. When she managed to roll back up on her feet, the Shadow Man and his shadow both were gone and in their place a large pool of shadow demons were gathering, sucking several Heartless into their midst as they grew in hight, slowly forming a large, terrifying creature with a multitude of arms, several yellow glowing eyes and a black bulbous body, looking vaguely like a spider with too many legs.

Kairi choked down a scream that was threatening to escape from her throat as she quickly backed away from the still growing monster. Every shadow and heartless in the area seemed to be absorbed by the monstrosity as it grew in size. Kairi tried hard not to stare at the creature, tried to avert her eyes for just a moment and gather strength to fight it, but she couldn't. Fear clawed at her chest at the sight of it and fear kept her eyes at the monster in order not to be taken by surprise once it would lash out at her. Hauru's voice then suddenly pierced through her paralyzis and his words echoed like a mantra in her head as she slowly came free of the terror that had struck her.

"Don't be afraid of it, Kairi! It feeds on your fear! Remember the keyblade! Fight it!"

"You're not alone in this!" Astrid added and appeared at her side as she finally broke free of the spell of fear she had been bound by.

Kairi shook her head to clear her mind and gave her friends a grateful smile as she took a new grip on her keyblade. "The Shadow Man just went after Naveen and the others. Someone has to help them while I take care of this thing."

"Hauru's on it already, don't worry," Astrid said, swinging her axe before her as if to test its weight. "He saw the guy leave and followed him."

"Then let's do this fast so that we can go over and help him," Kairi said, squaring her jaw as she planned out her attack, avoiding to look into the beast's eyes.

"Remember what that old voo-doo lady said back at the swamp?" Astrid said.

Kairi nodded. "I have to rid myself of the darkness inside me in order to fight the darkness around me. No fear. Only light."

Astrid nodded with a pleased smile, then spat on the ground and in unision they both moved forward in a sprint towards the monster of a Heartless. The creature at once turned towards them and started spitting dark fire at them from its mouth. The two girls dodged the balls of fire and tried to stay together for as long as they could, while the monster started to slam down on the ground with its hands, aiming to smash them like bugs and only missing them by a hair each time.

Kairi gritted her teeth as she dodged another fireball only to speedily have to roll over in the other direction to avoid getting flattened by a giant hand. This one wasn't only huge; it was fast too. _If only I was a bit faster or the Heartless a bit slower…_ she thought and almost hit herself in the head as the solution popped up in her mind.

She rolled around on the ground, avoiding another fireball and getting back on her feet in one movement, swinging her keyblade in the downward slash she'd learned to use earlier, feeding light into the attack as she moved to the side and repeated it. She managed to perform the _Star Seed_ attack a third time before the vines shot through the ground and wound them selves around the monster, slowing its limbs somewhat before it broke them. But each time a set of vines broke, another set took their place as Kairi continued the attack pattern until she had done it ten times in total. She spared no time to rest as the tenth set of vines shot from the ground to stall the creature. Quickly she focused her energy on the small white summon charm in her pocket, moving the keyblade into position as she felt the summon respond to her actions.

"Give me strength… Bolt!" she called out and in a blast of white light the white dog leapt forward without needing directions from her. Kairi felt her speed increase as Bolt shared his powers with her and when the giant Heartless finally broke through the last of the vines, Astrid had managed to chop off almost half of its limbs while they had been tied down, making Kairi's work even easier.

Speeding around the monster she finally spotted the Heartless crest at the underside of its belly, about five meters up in the air. She turned to Bolt and the dog took a hold of her keyblade and jumped, pulling her with him and sending her flying higher as he was starting to decend. Kairi charged the weapon with as much light as she could in a short time, the stars at its head shining brightly with power as she unleashed the attack.

"_Starlight Blast_!" she called out and as the keyblade swung free of her hands and hit the target, a blast of golden light shot out from the point of impact, almost blinding her as she fell back towards the ground.

"Woha! Warn me next time!" Astrid called out as she managed to catch Kairi in her fall, both of them rolling down on the ground as the Viking had bent her knees to soften the impact.

"Sorry," Kairi managed to huff out as they both got back on their feet running out of the way to stand on a safe distance, watching the gigantic Heartless Demon Tarantula cower into itself and with a tremble to the ground it fell down dead with a last shivering in its remaining limbs before it dissolved into nothing and released several crystal hearts into the air.

"That takes care of that, I guess," Astrid said, still huffing somewhat from the battle. "Let's get over to Hauru and give him a hand with that Shadow Man."

Kairi nodded in response to this and started jogging off towards where she had seen Dr. Facilier disappear to before the Demon Tarantula had taken up her full attention. Now that she was moving towards them, Kairi could hear the sounds of a battle. Someone was screaming out, then a loud blast was heard, accompanied by a bright light just behind the wagon that was next in line after the wedding cake one. As Kairi and Astrid rounded the corner of the wagon, they spotted Hauru as he did his best to keep the Shadow Man at bay, using a shimmering force field of sorts that seemed to drain his magical powers rather fast. Hauru was clearly straining to keep the magical shield up, his forehead covered in beads of sweat and his teeth gritting hard against each other, while behind him Lottie stood frightened with her father's arms around her and Tiana and Naveen in her hands trying to talk to her.

With no time to spare, Kairi charged her keyblade, stomped off the ground in a high jump, somersaulted and forced the keyhead down onto the ground to release the Light Blast. White light burst out in a soundless boom and managed to knock Dr. Facilier off his feet for a moment. Astrid hurried forward with her axe held high over her head, swinging it down to behead the enemy, but he rolled away from the threat in the last minute and with a growl he threw a dark powder into the Viking's eyes. Astrid stumbled to the side, taking one hand off the axe to wipe her eyes from the blinding powder, but found out that the powder had turned into a sticky mass that now clung to her face like an irremovable mask. With a panicked gasp, she let go of her weapon completely as she fought to get the sticky material away from her, causing it to spread over her hands and arms in the process.

"Astrid!" Kairi called out, wanting to get to her and help her, but her way was cut off by Facilier. The dark man grinned with evil glowing in his eyes. A hint of yellow had snuck into his irises and Kairi watched on with fear as black smoke started to rise around him.

"You've got a Parasite in you!" she gasped, pointing out the obvious and the man chuckled with amusement.

"I would much rather call it a Symbiot, my dear, but yes."

A waft of smoke suddenly shot out from him and Kairi only noticed in the last moment as she dodged it, that it was in fact part of his shadow.

"You see, child, I've got powers you've never even dreamed of existing," Dr. Facilier hummed with a musical tune to his voice. "I've got magic and voo-doo, demons at my command. I rule in the shadows and steer them with my hand. I delight in the night when others hide, 'cause I've got friends on the other side. Now darkness is part of my skills as well, since in my body a Heartless dwells."

He raised his hands high and with a ghastly cackle a stream of shadow demons raced forward, attacking Kairi from all directions at once with beaks, teeth, fangs and claws. No matter how she swung her weapon though, she couldn't hit them and she screamed in pain and agony as they kept on tormenting her while she fruitlessly swung her keyblade. She could hear Astrid's panicked squeeling in the background, Hauru calling out her name, but nothing mattered as the demons clawed at her hair, ripped her skin open and did their best to get to her heart.

She gasped in a sudden realization at the thought of the demons' target. _My heart!_ She instantly closed her eyes in concentration and emptied her mind of everything but the spark of light inside her chest. She pictured it glowing brighter with each heartbeat and within the growing light she could dicern Sora's smiling face, nodding at her in approval. _Let the light chase away the shadows_, she thought and felt warmth spreading throughout her body together with the light in her heart. _I'm a princess of heart. No darkness can conquer me. Only light will linger and there is no light stronger than that in my heart._

She opened her eyes to the blinding light that now glowed from her very skin, keeping the demons at a distance at first, then incinerating the shadow beings that they were as she put more force behind the light. She turned her eyes at Facilier and the man took a step back, his face telling of growing insecurity as to how he was supposed to get away from this battle alive.

"You're no ordinary keyblade wielder, are you?" he hissed, his voice not quite his own anymore as something alien was getting through in his eyes.

"I'm a princess of heart and I beg you to give up the darkness that you hide behind and accept my offering of mercy while you have the chance," Kairi said, her voice carrying stronger than she'd expected it to do.

Facilier grinned wide with amusement and his pearly white teeth smoothly transformed into fangs while his eyes truned entirely yellow.

"Give up? Hide?" hissed the new voice from the Shadow Man's mouth with a chuckle. "This man is a very good host and I will never give in to light! Darkness is always there as soon as the light goes away. Shadows exist only because there is light to feed them! Glow, precious princess! Glow with all your might and see just what your light can do to my shadows!"

A wall of shadows suddenly rose up from the ground behind him rushing forward as he moved in to hit on her with his long cane. Kairi switched her keyblade into the _Falling Star_ and raised it to parry the blow from the cane. As the weapons clashed the shadows flooded over her body and she blasted them away in a burst of light. Facilier backed off a few steps, still grinning and Kairi charged the keyblade in her hands with light so that the needles truned bright and glassy, growing longer with the power put into them. She swung the blade back a bit, then slashed it forward sending off a shower of light needles like projectiles piercing every shadow around her as the _Rain of Stars_ attack went into the second phase and each needle exploded with light.

The dark night sky was momentarily lit up by the explosion and Facilier's grin was fading. Kairi felt the drain on her powers but she didn't dare the risk to wait even a second now. She switched blades again, and certain that she would have to be more or less revived by Hauru afterwards, she took a hard grip on the handle of the _Soul Reaper _blade as she charged it with all the power she had left. She spun around her shoulder and released the attack with as much force as she could muster.

"_Soul Defender!_" she cried out and almost toppled over to fall to her knees as her remaining strength left her with the attack. Cresents of blood red light shot out from the keyhead and sliced through every remaining enemy on the battleground. A great deal of the crescents hit Facilier straight on and his scream echoed in the night as the Heartless inside his body left him in a try to escape, only to get hit by the attack as well.

Kairi sank to the ground, her energy spent and her head feeling lighter than usual. The _Soul Reaper_ clanked to the ground as it got too heavy for her to lift and vanished in a burst of red light. Somewhere a churchbell rang out the stroke of midnight and Kairi thought she heard Astrid coughing wildly, finally free of the dark goo that had covered her. Hauru bent down before her and offered her one of his elixir bottles.

"Drink this. You need it."

Kairi didn't argue and gulped down the sweet-tasting liquid as he poured it into her mouth. She had trouble believing that she'd actually managed to take care of the Shadow Man on her own, but Astrid, Hauru, Tiana and Naveen all affirmed that this was the case. Once they all had been taken to the comfortable and more than luxurious home of Lottie (whose full name proved to be Charlotte Le Beof) and her father, Kairi had begun to regain some of her strength. Sipping on a mug of delicious hot chocolate, Kairi listened to the others as they filled her in on what had happened on their side of the battle. Tiana and Naveen were still frogs, since they never had had the time to explain their situation to Lottie before the stroke of midnight. The blond and warmhearted young lady that was Lottie cried when she found out about it and Tiana and Naveen both ensured her that it was alright and that they in no way blamed her. Kairi smiled with a warm feeling in her heart as she looked upon the two frogs, standing together on the table, both of them obviously drawn to each other, but neither of them seeming ready to admit it.

"Wait, hang on a second…" Astrid suddenly cut in as the frogs went over the ordeal once more with the still weeping Lottie. "Kairi, you're a princess, right?"

Kairi almost choked on her chocolate and coughed for a moment as she tried to breathe. Everybody now turned to look at her with surprise and hope in their eyes.

"Hrrm, well," Kairi began as she tried to figure out what to say. "I… guess. Not the kind with a tiara and fluffy dresses and such, but now that you mention it, yes. I am a princess of heart. If that is of any help."

Tiana and naveen looked at eachother, hesitating, before Naveen cleared his throat to speak.

"Tiana, I… I want you to know… that even if this won't work… if we… would still be frogs and not humans… I… well…"

All of the people gathered strained to hear what he said and Lottie was even biting hard on the hem of her dress, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"Yes?" Tiana said, her eyes revealing that she very well guessed the ending of what the prince was trying to say.

Naveen sighed, then went down on one knee, taking Tiana's hand in his. "I would love to have you as _my _princess, if you want me."

Tiana smiled wide and nodded silently.

Lottie rolled her eyes heavenward and let go of the hem of her dress. "Well for crying out loud, woman! Answer him!" she squealed in excitement and Tiana laughed, pulled Naveen up on his feet and said softly: "I love you, Naveen. I'll be your princess."

And with that, she kissed him. A golden light suddenly enveloped them and as it faded, it revealed two humans sitting on the table, holding on to eachother in pure surprise. Tiana wore a bright green dress of a design that reminded Kairi of waterlilly petals, and a crown of gold glittered on her head.

Naveen's suit matched Tiana's dress perfectly and it took moment for all of the gathered to fully realize just what had happened.

"We're… we're human again!" Tiana said with a chuckle and Naveen smiled wide.

"Yes, we are. Princess."


	48. Part 2: Chapter 30 : Fighting to survive

**Chapter 30:2: Fighting to Survive**

"_Together we can make it while the world is crashing down.._." (Tokio Hotel, _Ready, set, go!_)

Riku winced while the green light faded away into his skin. He had managed to save up just enough magical power to cast a simple healing spell and had used it to deal with some minor wounds as well as a broken finger and to get a little more strength back into his tired arms and legs. This whole battle wasn't going too well. Hermione was fighting the Heartless with intense wandwaving, throwing spells faster than he could even imagine her being able to while she ran across the courtyard to aid Little John in a struggle against a large rhino-like Heartless. Donatello was swinging his staff high and low and used kicks, high jumps and overall smooth fighting techniques to cover for Robin Hood while the fox fired off several arrows at a time towards enemies of more concrete texture, such as the wolf guards of the castle.

Testing his healed up finger and finding it good and well, Riku grabbed the keyblade with the right hand again. His magic was on the low, but by switching keyblade into the _Cat's Eye_, he felt it go up a notch and tried to figure out a strategy. He'd been cornered behind a broken piece of wall next to the prison and the creature hunting him was no other than the transformed Heartless of Prince John. The large beast was prowling the grounds nearby, constantly searching for him. The only reason Riku had even managed to get away and hide was that he had been able to do a last minute conjuring of a dark shield which formed a protective wall between him and his hunter. The prince had rushed right past him and this had given him a few minutes respite, but now the beast was returning.

_Think, Riku, think!_ He ordered himself silently while he watched the enemy come closer. The _Cat's Eye_ increased his magic and had proven itself useful in finding the enemy even when it hid itself, but what else could it do, really? The _Magic Kingdom_ key had awesome power, but every special attack done demanded a lot of magical reserves, which he at the moment didn't have. _Full Metal _was more or less out of the question. It was heavy, had a short reach and demanded almost more magic than _Magic Kingdom _for its main attack. This only left him_ Way to the Dawn_, which was stronger than the _Cat's Eye_, but weaker than _Magic Kingdom_. He bit his lip in frustration as he shifted keyblade. The _Drop of Sunlight_ summon charm only helped if he needed healing and it took quite some time to get the healing done with Rapunzel having to sing her song to an end. And he was in no need of healing as it was, only his magic powers needed a boost. He could take use of Lara, from the _Sharp Shooter _summon, but he needed more magic to call her forth. With a silent curse he wished he'd been able to get hold of some _Ether_-like potion when they'd been at the space port of Montessor. All he could really do now was trust his strength while the magical reserves refilled.

Gritting his teeth, Riku stood up and was about to rush forward and try to get away from the prince while the beast was looking the other way, when one of his hindpaws bumped into a small glass-like orb. He looked down at the sound of it rolling towards the sheltering piece of wall he was behind and when seeing its colour, he quickly bent down and picked it up. It flashed in orange of varying shades and on its surface was carved a sharp-angled "P". _A summon charm?_ Riku thought and felt a responding heat emanate from the orb in his paw-like hand. He felt a tingle of hope looking down at the charm casting an orange glow over his silvery fur. The charm demanded almost no magic at all and the character within was a decidedly _Fierce Fighter_. He could use this one. Could and would.

Riku inhaled deeply and focused on the summons, trying hard to ignore the impending danger of being found by the Heartless prince. He swung his keyblade like a sword, shaping a pointy "P" in the air and inwardly he called out the plea for help. _Give me strength, Puss in Boots!_

From a spark of orange light, a small red tabby cat appeared, walking on his hindlegs, wearing a pair of neat leather boots, a cape and a wide-brimmed hat with a fluffy feather in it and holding a thin silver rapier, a fencing sword. The cat turned around in a pirouette and bowed silently towards Riku, showing him that he indeed was ready to fight and understood the situation enough to keep silent. Riku knew from experience that size didn't really matter as long as the talent was good, but he had a hint of a doubt in whether the small animal before him would really be usefull or not. Shrugging to rid himself of the negative notion, Riku motioned for Puss to follow him and cover his back. With a silent nod, the cat slunk in behind him, the sword ready in his frontpaw.

Counting down from three, Riku then rushed out into the open again and sure enough, the great lion of a Heartless roared in triumph and galloped towards him in an instant. Riku turned on his heels and dashed to the side in order not to get caught as the prince jumped at him. He barely avoided the collision and turned around again to fight the beast, when Puss suddenly jumped into action. The small agile cat dashed forward in a daring move with his sword before him and gave the Heartless prince several wounds all over his body, oozing with black smoke and dark energy. The big lion had no chance of catching the much smaller cat and was in compairance slow in his movements. Riku grinned wide at the whole scene and took advantage of the distraction by gliding forward and switching his keyblade again into the heavy, but powerful _Full Metal_ as he went. He was only a step away from the beast's head when he stopped and raising his keyblade high over his head, Riku mentally crossed his fingers for good luck, before he brought down the weapon to land a powerful hit straight on the prince's forehead. With a great howl of pain the lion backed away from the offending keyblade, black smoke now oozing out of the head as well as all of the smaller wounds caused by the swordwielding cat.

Puss strutted proudly over to Riku, bowed deep and disappeared in a poof of white smoke. Riku switched back to _Way to the Dawn_ again and felt a little sad for the summoned cat to vanish so quickly, but it had indeed proven itself useful to him. He watched as prince John backed even further away from him, throwing his head violently from side to side as if to rid himself of the pain. Riku noticed that he had indeed managed to hit straight on the Heartless Crest this time and he had no intention of letting the prince heal his wounds again.

"Oh-dee-lally!" a familiar voice suddenly called out and an arrow swept past Riku's ears with a whistling sound. Riku saw a hartless stagger away from him with an arrow through its head and turned to look in the other direction as Robin came running towards him, putting another arrow on his bow as he went.

"You really need to watch your back, my friend," Robin said with a weary smile.

"Thanks for doing it for me," Riku replied and returned his attention to the shrinking shape of the Heartless prince. "I've got him weakened, but the Heartless inside of him is still holding on to his body. We need to get it out of him fast before he heals up."

Robin nodded his understanding and followed Riku as he rushed towards the enemy. Prince John roared at them, but the once powerful attack only felt like a gentle shove this time and didn't stop the two foxes running towards him. With no other option left, the defeated prince turned around and ran. Swearing under his breath, Riku followed the fleeing prince, and Robin joined him, keeping an eye behind them so that Riku could be free to deal with the main threat. They followed the beastly lion up stone stairs and over a rickety and slim catwalk up on the wall surrounding the castle. The lion seemed to gain speed as they continued chasing him and Riku noticed with a pang of panic that the beast was starting to heal up. He charged his keyblade and threw it off in a spin. The _Strike Raid_ hit straight over the fleeing lion's back and slowed it down somewhat, but the prince kept moving away from them.

Suddenly the lion beast jumped up to start climbing the roof of a nearby tower, doing his best to escape Riku and Robin. Without hesitation, Riku leapt forward and managed the jump up to the roof with ease, quickly followed by Robin.

"Give up, prince John!" Riku called out when the lion started to look around it self in a desperate manner, finding all of his escape routes cut off. "There's no way to run now."

The lion roared, but the roar was nothing but a sound this time and Riku and Robin both took a step closer to the prince. Riku switched keyblade and the _Cat's Eye _shimmered brightly in his hands as it materialized. He aimed it towards the cowering lion prince and sent off the _Searchlight_ attack to hit him straight at the Heartless Crest in his forehead. The green beam of light pierced the mark easily and with a cracking sound the crest finally broke. Howling, the lion shrunk and changed form while it did so, but Riku paid no heed to the shivering remains of the once great foe. Instead he let his eyes follow the waft of smoke that escaped through the crest, taking the shape of a gangly humanoid heartless. The Parasitic hissed at Riku and he aimed the keyblade towards it, sending the green light through the creature before it had a chance to get away.

Robin walked up to the spot where the prince had been only a moment ago, and made Riku aware of the fact that the enemy was gone. The only thing left of him was a shimmering black shard, glistening with black light where it was lying on the roof pans. Riku remembered the shard he'd spotted in Narnia and warned Robin of touching it.

"Then what should we do about it? Surely we can't let it just lay here for anyone to grab?" Robin said with a troubled expression in his face.

"I will try to destroy it with my keyblade," Riku said, without any hope of succeeding. Something told him that this shard of darkness was stronger than that. But before he had even raised the keyblade to aim at the small jewel, his skin started tingling and he called out a warning to Robin as a dark portal opened up in the air just behind the fox. The Shadow Creature from before stepped out of the portal and gave Robin a shove before he'd had the time to move away and with a surprised yelp, he fell backwards, flailing his arms to regain his balance. Riku moved, but saw as if in slow-motion how Robin finally lost to gravity and stumbled over the edge of the roof, falling in a wide arch down towards the distant moat below, outside of the castle wall.

"Nooo! Robin!" Riku heard himself cry out in vain as he saw his friend fall.

_"__Ssssso weak and caring, sssilly keywielder,_" the Shadow Creature hissed, amusement clear in its voice as it stepped full out on the roof, bending down and picking up the dark shard.

Riku turned towards the creature with tears pressing at the corners of his eyes, but he forced them back, clenching his teeth.

"You!" he growled, releasing all of his hatred for the creature within that one single word.

"_Ssstill looking for your friendsss?_" the creature asked, flashing a wide grin with too many teeth glowing white within the darkness of its deep and wide hood. "_Ssstill think you can sssave them?_"

"Where are they?" Riku demanded, images of Sora and Kairi flashing before his eyes as he squeezed his hands tighter around the keyblade hilt.

"_Sssearch and you will find_," the creature chuckled and when Riku rushed at it with a roar of anger, it sent a blast of dark energy towards him. Riku countered the blast with one of his own, attacking the creature through the mist of darkness created by the clashing attacks, but the Shadow Creature was prepared and faster than the battle-worn Riku. It slid to the side, grabbed at Riku's silvery fox tail, pulled him backwards and gave him one final push straight in his chest, sending him over the edge of the roof.

Riku gasped in panic as he felt the roof disappear under him, his stomach suddenly taking an elevator ride up towards his throat. He almost felt his heart stop at the beat, trying hard to come up with anything, anything at all that could possibly save him from this fall. He tried to remember how to focus his magic in order to use the glide ability, but nothing came to his mind. He saw the top of the castle wall pass him by and turning in the air he managed to get his feet downwards just before he hit the cold water of the moat.

_Darkness. Swirling darkness everywhere. This is familiar am I? Castle Oblivion? No. We defeated that place a long time ago. We. Him and me. And the King. Sora… Where are you? What's happening to me? _ His thoughts were sluggish at first and slowly his memory started to kick in while he tried to see anything but the darkness surrounding him. The battle at the castle. Robin. The Shadow Creature pushing them off the roof. A sudden realization made him shiver and he finally realized what had happened.

Riku saw nothing as he opened his eyes. Then, little by little, light came through to him from somewhere and he blinked, trying to clear his eyes of the water to see clearer. _Wait…water?_

With a small exhale, a burst of bubbles were produced from his mouth and Riku thanked his luck that he'd actually held his breath as a reflex when going down under the water. Finally understanding where he was, he managed to make something out of what he saw and went straight for the light breaking through the surface far above his head.

He broke through the surface with a loud gasp for air, desperate to breathe again and splashed about in the water with his paw-hands to try and keep his mouth and nose above the surface long enough to get a deep inhale down into his lungs. Once he'd recovered his breathing, he calmed his movements and looked around himself, trying to locate land at the same time as he searched for a sign of Robin's whereabouts. As water left his big ears, he started hearing better and could make out the sound of someone moving through the water with brisk movements somewhere to his left, possibly beyond a thick stand of reeds blocking his line of sight. Quickly he started swimming towards the sound, hoping to find his friend well and on his way to dry land. Once he'd passed the reeds though, Riku started swimming faster, straining his muscles hard as he spotted Donatello swimming on his back towards land, dragging along an unconscious Robin.

"Donatello!" Riku managed to call out to his friend as the turtle heaved himself and Robin up on dry land where Hermione and Little John were waiting with anxiety marking their animal faces. Donatello left Robin to Little John and bent down to aid Riku out of the water as well. Riku felt worn beyond moving as he was finally lying on the grass. But he knew he couldn't rest just yet. The prince may be defeated and the Shadow Creature gone as well, but the Heartless were still at loose, which meant that this place was far from safe. On shivering legs, Riku pushed himself up to stand and got a much needed support to his balance from Donatello, who put his arm around Riku's back and allowed for Riku to put his arm over the friend's shoulders in turn.

They all returned to the hidden camp in the Sherwood Forest, looking carefully in every shadow, well aware of the lingering threat that the Heartless posed. Robin was thankfully enough breathing, but still unconscious he was beign carried by Little John, and the small red fox looked even smaller and more fragile in the arms of the large brown bear than he actually was. Hermione kept her wand at the ready all the way through the woods, throwing a wary eye at Riku and Donatello as she went. Riku had noticed that the turtle had gotten himself a semi deep cut in his back shell, but Donatello didn't even mention it and so Riku kept the discovery to himself. Hermione seemed to be missing a feather or two as well, but looked relatively un-harmed. Her skills with the wand had proven far greater than Riku had ever been able to guess and he was truly grateful for having her along.

When they finally reached the camp, Robin had come to and could walk the last distance on his own, albeit supported by Little John's strong hands on his back every now and then. Maid Marion came towards them with a face wrought with worry, but as she saw all of them returning in one piece, she relaxed and embraced her beloved Robin with a relieved sigh. Riku more or less collapsed on the ground as soon as he felt safe enough to do so and focused most of his energy on staying awake. Hermione sat down next to him and worked a few healing spells to ease his weariness and he managed to sit up straight after a while of lyingf on the ground and simply catching his breath.

"The prince is destroyed," Robin concluded their re-telling of the battle. "But the Heartless shadows are still around." He turned to Donatello, who was sitting next to him. "What can be done that hasn't been done already? How do we rid ourselves of the shadow monsters?"

"We need to lock the world heart away from them," Donatello replied, getting an agreeing nod from Riku.

"First off, we need to find the Heart, though," Riku said with a sigh.

"Can't you snese it?" Hermione asked curiously.

Riku shook his head. "Sadly, no. I don't know why, but I can't sense it at all in this place. I think…" Riku hesitated before deciding to reveal his theory. " I think I've used up too much of the light inside of me and that with mostly darkness in my own heart, I'm blind to the light of the world Heart."

Donatello hummed and nodded. "Sounds reasonable. Didn't you say you used up just about all of your magic back at the castle? And you used dark magic as well. If only we had some other way of finding out wehre it is than to wait for you to recover…"

Hermione slapped a wing onto her forehead with a smacking sound and moaned.

"Oh, how can I be so dense?" she said with a sigh and fumbled inside her robes, until she revealed her _Useful Book_.

Riku and Donatello both felt like slapping themselves as well as they realized what Hermione had just come to think about. The book had the answers to everything you asked it. All three of them had momentarily forgotten all about the handy little pocket-sized book that Hermione had snatched from the treasure chamber of the Cat King what seemed ages ago.

Hermione opened the book on the first page and asked it where to find the Heart of the world they were in. The answer appeared almost before she had finished her question and as she read it, she smiled victoriously.

"What does it say?" Donatello asked.

"_It lies within a circle of friends, close to the heart of the gathered trees, in darkness dwells the light you seek,"_ Hermione cited, getting confused stareds from the other people gathered.

"And just what does that mean?" Maid Marion asked.

"It means that it's right _here_," Hermione said, pointing at the ground before her. "The 'circle of friends' would be us, the 'heart of the gathered trees' is the camp in the midst of Sherwood Forest. All I need to figure out is the last bit about the darkness where it 'dwells'."

Riku looked around himself, letting his eyes wander over the camp and the people gathered in it. The night was slowly giving way to morning now, but in the midst of the camp a frie was burning to give warmth and light. Without saying anything, Riku stood up and called forth the _Cat's Eye_, focused his magic around the _Searchlight_ attack, closed his eyes and let the keyblade choose his direction for him. A vague pull made him turn towards the fire and as he opened his eyes, the green beam of the _Searchlight _shot out and hit the fire, revealing a glittering golden keyhole in the midst of the flames, growing in size as he watched. With a relieved smile on his lips, Riku switched to the _Way to the Dawn_ and locked the keyhole.

Robin and his merry men had wanted for Riku and his friends to stay a while longer and celebrate the victory, but Riku felt a pull in his heart telling him they had to move along. They said their goodbyes and left the camp around noon, when all three had taken a well needed moment of sleep and eaten something. They headed towards the Stargate they had emerged from and at their arrival, Hermione took out the _Useful Book _to ask it for the code to their next destination. Riku had a growing feeling of unease and his thoughts circled around his encounter with the Shadow Creature. It had seemed so sure of itself, so certain that it had the upper hand, and it made Riku feel more than a little uneasy with the whole situation. Something was up and he was starting to fear what it might be.

"This can't be right…" Hermione said suddenly as she looked over the book's reply once again.

"What is it?" Donatello asked and walked over to take a look at the book himself. Riku's felt a sickening sinking feeling in his stomach as he looked at his friends and noticed their troubled expressions.

"We're going back to Montessor Space Port," Hermione said, still not quite understanding the reason behind the coordinates given.

"But we were just there," Donatello said, scratching his head. "Have you tried asking it again?"

Hermione gave him a fierce stare with her owl eyes. "Yes. And it keeps telling me the same thing, no matter how I rephrase the question."

"Then we need to hurry up and get there," Riku said with a grim tone to his voice. "My guess is that there is something we need to do over there and that we need to do it soon."

A few minutes later, Riku stumbled through the portal of the Stargate in the old warehouse at the Montessor Space Port, quickly followed by Donatello and Hermione, all three of them turned back to their ordinary selves. As soon as they got outside of the warehouse, they understood why the book had been so intent on them returning.

A tremble to the ground confirmed what the fleeing panicked citizens had suggested to the trio: the Montessor Space Port was under attack. And it seemed to be a large scaled one. Riku grimaced and called forth the new keyblade given to him by Robin Hood, the Arrowhead, a long-reach silvery weapon with sharp edges and a key-head consisting of a set of sharp arrows. After a second thought, he called for the armor Aslan had given him as well, feeling he could need its protection and added strength. At the corner of his eye, he could see that Donatello and Hermione followed his example and looked to him for guidance.

"Alright," he said turning towards what seemed to be the largest threat in their vicinity. "Let's do this!"

**_Shards of Darkness_**

**_Part 2: Inbetween Worlds_**

**-The End-**

**To be continued and concluded in **

**_Part 3: The End of All Things _**

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><p><em>Yes people, the second part out of three is finally finished! Thank you all who have stayed with the fic for this long and I hope you will continue to read it as I keep on writing new chapters for it. Now please, please, PLEASE comment, because my muse can't run on my own inspiration alone, she needs feedback as well. ;) Now onward towards the next part and chapter! Silverspegel_


	49. Part 3: Ch 1 : The beginning of the end

_This is it. The third and final part of this fic is finally up on the net. It's taken me a lot more time to get to this point than I had expected when I started it all some years ago, but I'm going to see it to the end, rest asured. There are only about 30 or so chapters to go... I think... / Silverspegel_

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><p><strong>PART 3: The end of all things<strong>

"_He's gonna' fight for what's right, he's gonna' help us survive. We're in the fight of our lives (and we're not ready to die!). He's gonna' fight for the weak, he's gonna' make them believe. I've got a hero, living in me! I've gotta' fight for what's right! Today I'm speaking my mind! And if it kills me tonight (I will be ready to die!), a hero's not afraid to give his life. A hero's gonna' save me just in time!"_ (_Hero,_Skillet)

**Chapter 1: The beginning of the end**

"We need to extract the power of light from the prisoners you've taken." Xehanort's voice was without emotion as he spoke, but his eyes were glowing as he directed them towards his horned ally. The other was sitting comfortably leaned back in his large throne, his red eyes meeting Xehanort's golden stare with calm.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" he asked slowly.

Xehanort grunted."What does it matter to you? I have been waiting for far too long already, that's why." He took a deep breath, seemingly calming himself, pulling a gloved hand through his thick white hair. "I can either wait until I have all the shards gathered, or I can use the lights of the worlds taken in order to forge what shards we've already found and use the resulting crystal to find the rest even faster. You see, the Crystal seeks out the darkness it needs to be completed. With a bit of luck, I might not even need all of the shards to complete it, and instead simply use what darkness I come across to make the Crystal re-forge itself. Surely you must see the preferable choice to make in this?"

The hooded man in the throne hummed and nodded slowly. "I do see. But how do you intend to extract the light from our prisoners' hearts?"

Xehanort grinned and produced a keyblade, a black and red weapon with a terrifyingly sharp edge to its key head, and a small glass-like orb that fitted nicely in his hand. The horned master of the castle looked at the objects with curiosity, most of all intrigued by the weapon in his guest's hand.

"_You_ have the power of wielding a keyblade?" the horned one asked and the young white haired man chuckled.

"Yes. You don't need to be of pure light to do so. All you need is a strong heart and someone who gives you the possibility of obtaining the weapon. But never mind that. This blade is a special one. It unlocks hearts, instead of locking them. In unlocking the heart, I can extract the light within it. And with the aid of this magic sphere I can collect the light until I want to use it."

"And this is your grand plan?" the horned one said, his voice saturated with doubt. " To collect the light of thirteen worlds, one by one, using a keyblade and a small orb? I am a bit uncertain if that small ball of glass will be enough to contain that much light. And need I remind you that there are still a few pieces left to find of this precious crystal of yours."

Xehanort gritted his teeth in annoyance, but kept calm. He knew this man was someone who trusted what he saw more than what he was told, meaning a demonstration was in place.

"I know there are shards left to find, but I do recall that your own shadow-wrought creature has reported to you that those remaining shards are gathering at the same place as it is, a world where those without worlds have found shelter. We can easily collect the remaining shards if we play our cards right, and even if we should fail in this, the Crystal might still be able to re-build itself mainly by absorbing the darkness of hearts close to it. Now, if you bring me one of the prisoners, I will show you what I intend to do."

The horned man nodded and soon a couple of his demonic minions arrived with one of the prisoners. The elven princess was visibly worn by her captivity, but far from powerless. Despite her torn and filthy dress and the knots in her tangled hair, she still walked with her head held high and her eyes held a calm strength of character in their sharp stare as she looked her captors in the eyes.

"Ah, and whom may we have here?" Xehanort asked, intrigued to find that such a strong light keeper could exist without being a princess of heart.

"If I recall it correctly, this is Princess Zelda," the horned one replied. "Not that it matters. Now show me what it is that you can do."

Xehanort huffed with dislike. This ally was swiftly working his way onto the top list of people to be killed as soon as his part was played to the end. But instead of showing the red-eyed man what he felt about being ordered about by someone lesser than himself, Xehanort only bowed his head and once more produced the objects he had shown him before. The keyblade he held in one hand, while the orb was sent to hover close by the young woman.

Zelda glared at Xehanort, understanding gradually showing in her eyes.

"So you are the one creating the living shadows?" Zelda said calmly and received a grin from Xehanort.

"Guilty as charged, my princess."

"Your soul is far older than the body you have stolen, dark one," Zelda said, her eyes piercing his. "Whatever your plan is, it is doomed to fail. Darkness is not an ally you can trust and you cannot control it, no matter how much you think so. Back away now and your soul might still be saved from the damage you have caused it."

Xehanort let out an amused chuckle, turning his head to look at the master of the castle. "She is a price, this one. A seer and a hopeless believer of the good in us all."

The horned one nodded, his voice revealing a similar amusement as he spoke. "She is too sweet, is she not?"

Xehanort nodded in agreement and turned back to the princess. He told the two guards to back away from her and they obeyed after a frightened look towards their master, who nodded his approval to the order. Zelda suddenly looked scared. Her hands turning to fists, she tried to gather her power to fight off the man before her, but found that she couldn't summon even the smallest amount of light in her hands.

"If you just hold still, princess, this will be over quickly," Xehanort said, raising his weapon.

Before Zelda had a chance to react, a beam of red light shot out from the tip of the blade and hit her in the chest. She tried to breathe, tried to scream and tried to move away, but nothing happened. Something feeling close to a pinch took place inside her chest, and suddenly she felt as if she was sucked out of her body and all was darkness.

The princess went limp and as a glowing orb of golden light was pulled out of her chest, her body evaporated, leaving nothing in the place where she had been. The hovering glass orb widened to a size slightly larger than the heart captured in the keyblade's beam and swallowed the heart whole, before shrinking back to the previous size and hovering back to Xehanort. He put the orb back inside his black robe and let the keyblade disappear before returning his attention to the castle lord.

"Now, shall we deal with the remaining twelve hearts?" he said and got an approving nod from his ally.

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><p>"Ansem?"<p>

He looked at her and nodded silently. He had felt it as well. Something was horribly wrong in the worlds. Terribly wrong.

"A heart of light has been taken. It has started then, the beginning of the end."

Aqua grimaced at the words, but she didn't object, seeing the truth in them as he spoke. She suddenly rose to stand on her feet, letting out a frustrated growl through clenched teeth.

"Ah! I can't stand this never ending waiting for something to happen without being able to do anything!" she said and sighed. In the silence that followed upon her outburst, the soundless waves of the ever moving water lapped over each other at the beach, leaving the sand moist from their touch while she watched it in hope of finding something that she hadn't seen before. Anything that could tell her about what was happening in the outside world and how she would be able to cross the vast space between this world of non-existing and into the world of the light and the living. But all she could see was the same water, the same grey sand at its shores and the same black stone formations rising every here and there along the land. The sky was as still and grey as ever and the false sun still shone from the same place of in-between setting or rising as it had been ever since she got here.

"He is gathering the lights of the worlds taken in order to forge their counter parts together," Ansem said slowly, wincing as he felt another light being lost. "This must mean that he has either found all of the shards or have very few of them left to find."

Aqua returned to sit beside him on the stone. "What do you think it will mean for us?"

Ansem shrugged. "I wish I knew. But the forging of the Dark Crystal affects this world, that much we have already seen. Exactly how it will affect us is up to the future to show us, but for now, I guess all we can do is hope for the best and pray that the keyblade wielders will find a way to stop Xehanort from opening the Kingdom Hearts this time around as well."

Aqua nodded slowly, unwillingly accepting the truth in the thought that she could do nothing but wait for an opportunity to show.

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><p><em>He felt as if fire was eating him up, but he knew there would be no flames and no body to be burned by them should he try to look. Something was pulling at him, telling him to move. And still he couldn't, despite his will to do so. He was stuck in the same place where he had always been ever since… He didn't want to think about that day. He knew his own name now. He remembered a lot of things. But he wished he had not remembered the events that his foolish decisions had caused, and what it had done to those he loved the most. He had been fooled to betray his own beliefs and his friends. Aqua… Beautiful, powerful Aqua had been forced to fight him as Master Xehanort had taken him over. And Ven… He felt his heart almost breaking as he remembered fragments of what had happened to the boy he'd thought of as a younger brother. Had he even survived it all?<em>

_Frustrated by the feeling of loss combined with the desperate need to break free of his prison, he tried did what he could to let it all out. He roared out his anger. _

_A tremble passed through the emptiness surrounding him and for a second he could glimpse the outside world through his own eyes, feel the touch of fabric against his skin and recognized the weight of a keyblade in his hand. The mere chock of it made him lose the grip of his body that he had suddenly re-gained and he was back in the darkness even before a second had passed, but he _knew_ what had happened and he knew that his captor knew it as well. The walls of his prison was slowly weakening, which meant that Master Xehanort had either grown weaker or he had done something that un-intentionally had made _him_ stronger. Eager to test this newly discovered chance to escape, he once again threw himself against the walls of his prison with a soundless voice and invisible body, but Xehanort had re-enforced his magic now and there were no more glimpses of the real world. _

_But stubborn as he had always been, Terra didn't give up. He merely decided to wait until he sensed a new crack in the wall which he could ram into and break free. He had all the time in the world, so he would wait._

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><p><strong><em>Author EDIT:<em>**Thank you dear anonymous reviewer of this chapter who noticed what I had completely missed, namely that my spacing between the different sets (Xehanort - Aqua - Terra) had been magically removed in my copying from Word to ! Now, this is fixed (with an extra clear mark using a line), so that hopefully no other readers will have the same trouble with the shift. ;) / Silverspegel


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